


Accidentally Engaged

by QAtheAuthoress74



Category: LEGO Monkie Kid
Genre: Cultural Differences, Dad Wukong, Demon Courtship, Dorks in Love, Gay Panic, I hope, Idiots in Love, Kidnapping, Kids Making Questionable Decisions, M/M, Misunderstandings, Monkey Dad Having To Teach His Dense Son The Demon Birds and The Demon Bees, Pining MK (Not until later), Pining Red Son, Romantic Comedy, Some angst but with a happy ending, Spicynoodles, Spicynoodleshipping, Suggestive Themes, accidental Marriage Proposal, but not the bad kind, but still sfw, i think, unintentional innuendos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-13 21:46:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 31,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28535373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QAtheAuthoress74/pseuds/QAtheAuthoress74
Summary: Fed up with the amount of times the Demon Bull Family have attacked the city, MK decides to make matters into his own hands by kidnapping Red Son and hold him for ransom. In reality, his parents not only don’t respond to any of the messages he and Mei send but Red Son seems perfectly fine with staying in MK’s place. He even cleans everything up, make MK meals and acts nice and affectionate? Things get weirder when Red Son insists that they’re engaged. That’s when MK decides to pay his teacher/idol/father-figure/personal groomer a much needed visit. He totally didn’t run all the way or scream at the top of his lungs, “WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME!”
Relationships: Princess Iron Fan/Demon Bull King (Background), Qi Xiaotian | MK/Red Son
Comments: 86
Kudos: 133





	1. Let’s Kidnap Ourselves A Demon!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sun Wukong’s pupil shows up on Bath Day to tell him the latest irresponsible thing he did to tick off a demon, but still leaving more unanswered questions.

Just beyond the Flaming Mountain Range, on the very border of the Aolai country lied the legendary Flower-Fruit Mountain. Home of the Great Sage, Equal To Heaven himself: Sun Wukong.

The mighty (retired) Monkey King was in the middle of taking his monthly bath up in the hot springs behind his home, behind the waterfall. Normally he was always vigilant on everything, but when it came to bath day the Stone Primate lowered his defenses and relax his aching thousand-and-a-half-year-old muscles.

Even though Wukong was an immortal that loved a good scrap, he fancied with the idea to enjoy a nice staycation every now and then.

Sun sighed while uncurling his toes, along with his tail. The water was at the perfect temperature that warmed his fur in all the right places. The wafting scent from the nearby peach blossoms only enhanced the serenity of the setting. Everything was so calm and peaceful with only the sound of birds and crashing waves in the distance disrupting the silence. Sun even went ahead and made sure all the members of his troop were sated with their activities so not to bother him.

He had a feeling everything was going to go his way today.

“MONKEY KING~!”

The First Acolyte of Tripitaka nearly slipped into his natural Jacuzzi (almost giving him flashbacks to all the times he nearly drowned during his quest). Sun steadied himself, holding to the sides of the rock basin with a firm grip.

It took Wukong hearing that same shout for him to recognize the voice.

“Kid?” With quick haste that only the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven possessed he got out of the tub, wrapped a towel around his waistline (since some humans are apparently uncomfortable seeing him without any articles of clothing on) and hurried over to the main spherical room of his Stone Mansion where the source of his protégé’s yell was the loudest.

“Bud?” Sun called out to his ~~so~~ -pupil. Yeah, his _pupil_. He called out to his pupil, looking around in an effort to finding him faster. It didn’t take too long for the Handsome Monkey King to spot the young human over by the room’s main entrance from the waterfall.

“What’s wrong?” he yelled louder so that the young mortal could hear him.

“MONKEY KING!” Wukong’s student, the Monkie Kid—better known as MK—turned after looking around and noticed the Stone Monkey. “Monkey King, I need your help,” he said in a softer tone, but still flailed his arms wildly.

“What is it? Is it Six-Eared Macaque up to his dumb old tricks again?” he asked, going on high alert. Nearby, a few of his seasoned, and immortal, troop members (Ma, Liu, Beng and Ba) held spears and swords at the ready.

“No,” the boy said and shook his head.

“Did Baigujing come back to life, again?” Wukong sounded equally worried, but still a bit annoyed at the end. Just how many times was that darn bone demon going to resurrect?

“No.”

The Monkey King frowned as a new thought came to him. “You didn’t… anger anybody up in the Jade Emperor’s terf did you? I’m still kinda on their bad side at the… century.”

“Not that either,” he said, turning his head away slightly.

“Then what kind of danger are you in, Bud?” The Immortal Stone Monkey tilted his head while looking at the boy. That was when he noticed all the grass and mud stains on his pants and shoes, along with the sweat all over the kid’s face. Did he use the Staff to travel all the way to Flower-Fruit Mountain?

_Whatever’s got the kid scared must be something really bad,_ Wukong’s conscience brought up before he pushed it away.

MK pursed his lips before he scratched the back of his head, a habit born from when the kid would move his hands while he became nervous.

Yep, something pretty bad, indeed.

“The thing is… A demon, or some other bad guy is not chasing me.”

All of the tension inside the cave evaporated as quickly as it appeared. The armed monkeys groaned and grumbled their grievances at not getting to go to war in almost two millennia.

Wukong understood their pain.

“You made me end my monthly bath day early just to tell me that there isn’t a demon or something else trying to hurt you?” His voice veiled with faint irritation at worrying over nothing.

“N-no! What I need to tell you is—wait, you only bathe once a month?” MK gave the immortal simian a wide-eyed stare.

“Yeah.” Wukong shifted uncomfortably. “Doesn’t everybody?” Granted the last time he noticed those hygiene rituals humans performed was over three hundred years ago. Surely nothing much had changed since then, right?

For some reason Wukong’s comment made his student’s eyes grow even further before watching him shake the apparent cobwebs out of his head. “Look, I came here to talk about something really important.”

“But not life-threatening important?” Wukong repeated.

“Well~,” MK trailed off, uncertain. He rubbed the back of his hair again, which made Sun wonder if his Bud needed another grooming session before his words distracted him from that train of thought. “I might be in mortal danger right now, but I’m like 85% sure that it’s not related to me losing my powers this time or almost getting possessed, or being trapped under a mountain for 500 years.”

“O-kay,” Wukong drew out impatiently. “So, what is the problem?”

“Can we sit over on your couch?” MK asked while pointing to said furniture. “It’s kinda a long story.”

“Hopefully not as long as my famous one, right?” the monkey demon teased in effort to cheer the kid up.

It worked and caused MK to chuckle slightly. “No, but it’s still got a lot of stuff in it. Also could you do one more thing?”

“Sure, what?”

“Please put a shirt on. Nothing personal, it’s just kind of distracting,” MK’s face turned red while he turned his head away slightly.

“Oh.” Wukong glanced down to see he was still in his towel and nothing else. To his troop this was not indecent, but to a human…? Yeah. “I’ll change in a sec,” the Monkey King promised before literally changing into his regular armor and cape in the blink of an eye. He then led his pupil to the worn, but lovingly owned couch after grabbing a bag of his _Peachy Chips_. He munched on the fruity-salty snack while speaking in-between bites, “So, tell me the story, Bud. What’s got you all hot under the collar?”

“Funny thing you should mention the word hot,” MK started before he spun his yarn.

🔥🍜

_“Okay so you know how after the White Bone Demon was defeated for good, DBK, Princess Iron Fan and Red Son resumed the whole ‘trying to take over Megapolis’ plan?”_

_“Ah-huh. Just like another Tuesday for you and your friends.”_

_“It did at first, but then things kinda went south.”_

_“How south are we talking here, Bud?”_

_“Well…”_

**Three Months Ago~**

MK was-

🔥🍜

_“Wait, this happened three months ago and you decided to tell me this now?”_

_“Can you please let me talk, Monkey King?”_

_*Sigh* “Fine.”_

🔥🍜

MK was in the middle of driving his tuk tuk, prepared to deliver some noodles, listening to some tunes on his headphones when a bright flash of flames appeared in his rearview mirror. The young man turned around for a concise second to see if his eyes weren’t deceiving him.

“NOODLE BOY!” came the shout from a—by this point—familiar redheaded demon in a small, but extravagant racecar. “Are you ready for the battle that will decide your fate?”

Perhaps when they first met the threats made by Red Son caused MK to shiver with fear, but now? Now, after almost a year, he was just accustomed to it.

“Dude, I’ve got, like, four more deliveries that I need to do here. Can’t this wait?” He hoped that asking in a polite way would give him a windfall and not be attacked today.

Red Son appeared confused at the human’s response. “Can’t this—No, it cannot! Not when I am about commence the fight that will determine your destiny— ”

“For the love of—fine!” MK cut his nemesis off before he’d let him finish. He summoned his Staff and turned his auto rickshaw around in order to parallel park by a street corner. In a quick sequence MK jumped out of the vehicle and assumed his Monkie Kid persona before stepping into the strike.

It took less than 15 seconds for the odds and ends of Red Son’s Inferno Racecar to fall onto the ground and him along with it.

MK sighed and said, “Hey, you still alive there?”

Underneath the pile of rubble came the son of the Demon Bull King and Princess Iron Fan. His flame colored locks were ablaze with fury. “I WILL GET YOU, NOODLE BOY! IF IT’S THE LAST THING I—Wait, he’s gone already?”

By the time Red Son had jumped out of the broken car parts MK had already sauntered off to his tuk tuk, and drove back on the street after he found an opening in the traffic. Once he knew the fire demon was all right the delivery boy had decided it was time to get back to work. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to deal with Red Son for a while.

**The Next Day~**

“NOODLE BOY!” Red Son yelled while MK was in the middle of helping Pigsy carry some much needed supplies in the store’s backend.

“What?” The Monkie Kid narrowed his eyes in confusion. Normally his fights with the young hotheaded demon happened once a week. Why the change in the status quo?

**The Next, Next Day~**

“FOUND YOU, NOODLE BOY!” MK and Mei yelped in alarm after seeing the demon barge into their favorite arcade.

“Did you fight him, like, the other day?” Mei found the time to ask after she and MK beat Red Son up afterwards.

“And the day before that,” the Monkie Kid said, his voice having a slight edge to it.

**The Next, Next, Next Day~**

“WE MEET AGAIN, NOODLE BOY!” Red Son materialized from a puff of smoke and fire, grinning evilly.

MK was assisting Mr. Tang with bringing some of his scrolls to the library he volunteered at when the fire demon appeared. The Monkie Kid stared blankly at the immortal. “Seriously, man, how are you finding me so easily?” he asked. “Do you have a tracker on me, or something?”

“Enough talk, let’s fight for—”

“The fate of my destiny, blah-blah-blah,” MK said, making the puppet hand gesture while he talked. He handed his scroll over to Tang and lunged for Red Son.

**Literally 45 Minutes Ago, In The Chronological Storyline~**

“DON’T THINK YOU’VE WON THIS ROUND, NOODLE BOY! I WILL FIND YOU!”

“He does know that the ship’s barely five feet away from the dock, right?” Sandy asked MK while at the helm. The two of them were about to embark on a deep sea fishing trip when Red Son appeared out of nowhere to confront them. All MK had to do was whack the demon into a condemned building before simply telling the blue giant to just get them out of the harbor.

In the present time MK was leaning against the railing of the boat with a very irritated expression. His only reply to Sandy’s question was, “Honestly, I don’t care enough to wonder why he doesn’t just jump by this point.”

🔥🍜

“Wait,” Mei paused, putting down her drink on the counter. “You mean to tell me for the past week Red Son’s been constantly attacking you, like, every single day?”

MK, who had just come back from his fishing trip with Sandy, peered at his best friend with tired eyes. He nodded. “Yeah, and I still don’t know what for. Nobody else has figured out if DBK and Princess Iron Fan are up to something and sent him out as a distraction. No one has reported any valuable artifacts stolen, or seen any Bull Clones attack anyone lately. Even Tang’s stumped and he’s the smartest guy I know.”

Mei considered his words while biting her lower lip. “Maybe he’s trying to challenge you so he could get stronger? He usually loses every time we’ve fought him before. Does he say anything that sounds like he’s just looking for a rematch?”

MK shrugged helplessly. “The only thing he kept saying was that it was meant to be the fight that would determine my fate or destiny. Some crud like that.”

Mei appeared stumped like him. “Gotta say that doesn’t really help with explaining anything.”

Hearing that only made MK feel even more stressed about the situation. He rubbed his hands through his black hair and grumbled.

“It’s not fair,” he complained. “I wouldn’t mind it so much if it was a once a week thing like normal, but he’s relentless. I feel like I’m going to lose my mind if I hear him shout-”

“NOODLE BOY!”

“Seriously?” the Completely-Done-With-It-MK snarled, startling Mei. Without another word he got up from his stool and marched up to the front door. There was Red Son in all his demonic glory with his giant gunmetal tow truck of doom parked right in front of the store.

“Noodle Boy,” the fiery demon said in a less aggressive tone. “I’ve come here to-”

“I don’t give a flying flip what you want,” MK cut him off. He took several steps forward until he was standing before Red Son, inches away from his face. “I’ve already had to fight you today, yesterday, the day before that and all of last week, along with your parents’ scheme, the Gold and Silver Kings and every other demon from a fifty mile radius. And do you know how many thank you’s I got for risking my neck saving this city and my friends? Háo bù!* So forgive me if I expect to at least have some common curtsey in the form of not being bothered after I already fought you earlier. So…. I’m only going to ask this once and that is you…

“LEAVE. ME. ALONE!!!” MK’s yelling was so loud that not only did everyone in the city hear him, but the entire bureaucracy of Heaven did too. Many of its inhabitants (including one Jade Emperor, still suffering from PTSD) all collectively wondered how Sun Wukong made himself sound so young again.

“Mighty Erlang,” the double bun wearing Prince Nezha said to the taller, older god. “Did you hear something?”

“I also **felt** something,” the warrior of purity murmured, showing and feeling dread for the first time in centuries. His loyal dog whimpered beside his master’s feet.

With all said and done, the young man just stood there breathing deeply while he right eye began to twitch. In front of him the former Red Sage King’s jaw dropped while his eyes turned completely white.

“I… I’ll just come back tomorrow then,” Red Son said in the most subdued voice MK ever heard him speak.

“Yeah, you go that” he said, tone matching the fire demon’s perfectly.

Red Son slowly walked backwards to his truck while he eyes never strayed away from MK’s. The Monkie Kid turned away once he saw the fire demon leave the street.

“Wow, MK. I didn’t know you could get that angry.”

As the young man stalked back inside the restaurant he overheard some snippets of Pigsy’s conversation with Tang about ‘not skimping on the kid’s paycheck again’ before he just left the room entirely and climbed up the stairs to his loft, not caring if Mei did, or didn’t follow him.

He slumped over to his twin-sized bed, gutted and emotionally drained from venting out his stress. MK sensed a slight pressure on the other end of the bed and looked up to see his oldest friend sitting next to him.

“Do you want to talk about what just happened or…”

MK groaned, covering his face with a pillow. “I’m sorry, Mei. I didn’t mean to snap like that. I was just so angry and stressed out. Monkey King’s been teaching me about meditation and some breathing exercises, but I guess they haven’t clicked yet.”

“This whole thing with the Demon Bull Family’s gotten you super tense,” the Dragon Horse Girl noted. She removed the pillow off of him and patted his shoulder. Then she asked if he wanted a cup of tea and offered to make some for him. When he said yes Mei went over to the small burner he had on his countertop, waddling through clothes, toys and trash on the floor.

“Sorry,” he apologized to her from the bed. “I was gonna clean today after I went fishing with Sandy, but then the whole thing before and after we sailed happened… and yeah.”

“You should get one of those cleaning robots or hire a maid,” she teased after bringing two cups of green tea for her and him.

“Ha, if I can afford either you mean,” he replied in a similar tone. MK blew on his mug before drinking a small sip. He sighed happily as the familiar flavor washed over his taste buds and the tea went down his throat. “I really needed this.”

“The tea or the moment to breathe?”

“Probably both,” he admitted. His smile turned wistful while staring at his reflection in the tea. MK hadn’t noticed the bags under his eyes or the frown lines until then.

“It’s too bad that you haven’t really been getting a chance to have more moments like this.” Mei said, attempting to commiserate with her friend.

He nodded. “I just wish there was a way I could get either Red Son or DBK and Princess Iron Fan to stop fighting us all the time. Then maybe I won’t be feeling so stressed.”

“They gotta have some kind of weakness,” the pigtail-wearing girl said.

MK tried to brainstorm on anything he could think to use against the Demon Bull Family from what he remembered in the legend. Unfortunately, most of what he conjured up in his mind usually involved the aid from divine intervention. When he told that to Mei she asked him why couldn’t they just get help from the gods like Sun Wukong used to back during his journey to the west.

“I already asked Monkey King that and he revealed that he’s apparently not on the best terms with the Jade Emperor right now. Or the other immortals he knows. Something about stealing a peach tree and causing a stampede a few centuries back.” MK scratched the back of his neck before shrugging.

“Well, I guess that explains why he’s hanging out on Earth and not up in the Heavenly Kingdom,” Mei said.

“He also said that they don’t have great Wi-Fi up there, so he can’t watch anything on _Brickflix._ ”

Mei’s eyes widened in horror. “Okay, that’s a better reason for why he still lives in Flower-Fruit Mountain.”

“But anyway, we can’t get the gods to help us out since Monkey King is still on their bad side. So, I’m stumped over what else I could do.”

“… Didn’t you say that during the time you were facing DBK while he was possessed by the White Bone Demon, Princess Iron Fan and Red Son helped you fight him?”

“Yeah,” MK said, though he was uncertain how this was related to the main issue at hand.

“The reason they were willing to put aside their animosity towards you was so they could free DBK from his possession,” Mei rationalized. “His wife and son love him more than they hate you.”

“Thank you for summing that up,” MK said in a very rare use of deadpan.

“What if there was a way we could use that against them?”

“How? Like we kidnap one of them and then keep ‘em away until the rest of the Demon Bull family begs we let them go after they agree to give up their villainous ways for good?”

MK had simply came up with that from the top of his head. He didn’t take any of what he suggested seriously. When he looked up from his tea the young man noticed a glint in the Dragon Girl’s eye.

“Mei, I know that look. I know what you’re thinking and the answer is no,” MK said, pointing at her in disproval.

“It’s really not a bad idea—” she began saying.

“It’s a terrible idea,” MK opposed. He put his drink over on his windowsill and stood up to pace. “It sounds like something a demon would do. Which I don’t think is racist since those Gold and Silver demon brothers did kidnap me once and the Spider Queen captured Pigsy and Tang.”

“Wait, you were kidnapped?” Mei got up, giving MK a nonplussed look. “When and why didn’t you tell any of us?”

🔥🍜

_“Why didn’t YOU tell me that happened until now, kid?”_

_“It was months ago, and I didn’t want to bother anybody with what happened.”_

_“What did you tell your friend?”_

_“The exact same thing.”_

🔥🍜

MK waved a dismissive hand. “It was months ago, and I didn’t want to bother you guys—but anyway, back to the plan. It’s terrible. You expect me to just kidnap Red Son or Princess Iron Fan from DBK?”

“I’m pretty sure Iron Fan would wipe the floor with us… but Red Son on the other hand,” Mei intentionally trailed off. When MK gave her an unimpressed look she sighed and said, “He’s easily the weakest member in the Demon Bull Clan and he’s a bad guy, so would it really be bad if we captured him?”

“I mean, yeah, Red Son is an evil demon bent on world domination, but he’s still a person. And kidnapping people in general is bad, no matter what the reason is.”

“So, then what other plan do you have in mind?” she asked but sounded as though she already knew what his answer was going to be.

MK had none, unless he and his friends had the stomachs to go through with a more permanent solution in getting rid of the Bull Family. Yes, he and Team Monkie Kid wanted the demonic threat over the city to end, but they had agreed that they would exhaust any non-life-threatening solution they could find before resorting to drastic measures.

He sighed and with heavy reticence said, “We’ll go with the kidnapping plan.” The Monkie Kid hated the idea and wanted to come up with something less amoral, but it was the only one they got.

“Okay, so we should go tell the others the plan. I’ll find Sandy and you can go downstairs to-”

“No,” MK said. “I don’t want anyone besides you and me involved. If this somehow blows up in our faces I don’t want Pigsy, Tang and Sandy to be put on the Bull Fam’s hit list.”

“Aren’t we all already on their hit list?”

“Yeah, but just for being heroes,” MK explicated. “I don’t to give DBK and Iron Fan a real reason to hate them.”

  
  
“You don’t even want to tell the Monkey King about this plan?”

  
  
“No,” the boy shook his head. “Especially not him. He might try to stop us, or might take control of the plan. I just want this between you and me.”

🔥🍜

_“Wow, you wound me, kid.”_

_“I know.” *Sigh*_

_“So nobody else but Mei knew about what you were doing?”_

_“Yeah. So, we both planned to meet up again in the morning before Red Son’s eventual return. We picked out a spot away from the most heavily populated areas and we just waited for him to show up.”  
_

_“And he did?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“How did the fight go? Did you put in a few good punches?”_

_“So, what happened was..."_

🔥🍜

“Okay, so all we need to do is take him after we knock him out. Piece of mooncake!” Mei recapped their plan after arriving at the abandoned warehouse district of the city.

MK surveyed the area with his eyes and frowned. “Are you sure this is far enough away so no one can see us… you know?”

“You can say ‘take Red Son’ you know.”

The Monkie Kid squirmed slightly. “I still feel kinda bad.”

“We don’t have to do this if you’re really against it,” his friend said to pacify his growing worry.

“No,” MK shook his head rapidly. “We don’t have any other options. We gotta go through with this plan,” he said mostly to himself.

The Dragon Sword wielder gave the young man a look before shrugging in acceptance. “Okay.” Mei turned to look over at the vacant street where she had parked her beloved motorcycle that she rode with MK earlier. “So far no sign of him.”

“Red Son said he’d see me again today,” MK said.

“I know, I was at the shop when he said it.”

“Okay, sorry.” He winced after realizing how sharp his tone had been.

“But he will find us here, right?” Mei asked, sounding skeptical.

“He’s managed to find me every other place I’ve been the last couple weeks. Maybe it’s because we’re—”

VV-VROOM~!

“There he is now,” MK pointed to the giant truck belonging to Red Son as it arrived at the scene.

“Okay,” Mei grinned as she summoned her biker helmet and then her jade blade. “Remember the plan?”

“You take care of the Bull Clones and I’ll deal with Red Son on my own,” MK answered after he brandished the Staff.

“Sounds simple enough.”

“I’m sure we’ll find a way to mess it up,” the Monkie Kid joked.

“Save the quipping for when our ‘favorite’ demon makes an entrance.”

As if on cue the side door of the Inferno Truck opened and out came the flamingly flamboyant fire demon. “Hello~ Noodle~ Boy~” Red Son dragged out each syllable before he teleported with his usual dramatic flair.

“-e’s not even trying to hide it.” MK thought he heard Mei mutter.

He whipped his head to look at her with a confused look. “What?” 

“Nothing!” In a flash of green Mei charged after the multiple Bull Clones and fought them with ease. MK turned his attention back to his foe. He shifted his weight and legs until he was standing in the four-six stance Monkey King taught him. Red Son had an more offensive stance at the ready as both males glowered at the other. The fighting around them became background noise, even when a deactivated Bull Clone landed between the two, creating a small crater. The robot’s demise became the signal to start their long-waited fight. MK and Red Son charged at the same time, letting out huge battle cries as their forms drew closer and closer…

🔥🍜

_“Oh, I can’t wait to hear what awesome fight technique your wise, strong and handsome mentor taught ya.”_

_“I wish I could tell you what he taught me.”  
_

_“I’m about to hear a but, aren’t I?”_

_“Yeah…”_

_*Deeper sigh* “Okay, so what really happened?”_

🔥🍜

MK lifted his staff over his head, prepared to knock out the fire demon as just as planned when said evil immortal hit his foot against a rock. Much to the surprise of both males Red Son tripped and fell down into the ditch, hitting his head against the hard armor of the inactive Bull Clone. MK slid to the bottom with his feet to check if the demon was truly unconscious or if it was a trick. He harmlessly nudged Red Son’s cheek with end of his Staff. The action didn’t reawaken Red Son as the Monkie Kid had initially worried before a new fear came in.

He really was going to have to follow through with the plan now.

**End of Chapter I**


	2. Are Frienemies Supposed To Act Like This?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things don’t go according to plan.... but that might be alright?

_“So you’re telling me that Red Son tripped and fell right into a crater, knocking himself out in the process?”_

_“Yep, pretty much.”_

_“Wow, that’s anti-climactic.”_

_“That’s almost the exact same thing Mei said.”_

_“What else did you and she say?”_

🔥🍜

“Well, that was anti-climactic.” Mei noted, placing a hand on her left hip.

“You can say that again,” MK replied. In the corner of his eye the Dragon Girl smirked. “Well, that was anti-climactic.”

MK snorted. “That’s not funny.”

Mei giggled before she gently punched his arm. “Hey, you’re laughing, too.”

The two friends continued chuckling for a moment before remembering where they were after their eyes landed on Red Son’s unconscious form.

“Riiiight, we’re supposed to be kidnapping him now.” the pig-tailed biker chick said, sounding far too casual for someone about to commit a felony.

MK grimaced before giving his friend a look. “Do you really have to call it that?”

“Well, what do you want to call it instead? Capture, secretly borrow a person until other people start to notice his absence?”

“Okay, no.” The Monkie Kid shook his head, putting his hands in his face. “Somehow that sounds even worse.”

Mei sighed before heading to her White Dragon Horse Bike. In the side saddle she pulled out a long string of thick steel rope. Thanks to her Dragon powers she was able to carry it with ease.

“There’s just no pleasing you, is there?” she asked while returning to MK and handing him the rope.

MK sighed while accepting the rope and looked over at the comatose demon. He stood over the redheaded immortal, hesitating.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Mei asked him from what he was sure must’ve been the umpteenth time for her.

“No,” he admitted. “But it’s the only way.”

“Do you want me to help you tie him up?”

He nodded.

The two friends wrapped the cable until it coiled tightly and thoroughly around Red Son’s frame.

“Okay,” MK started while wiping imaginary dirt from his hands. “Now all we need to do is carry him on your bike and take him back to your place.”

Mei did a double take. “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” She raised her hands over her chest. “Who said anything about Red Son staying with me?”

“Uhh, because your house is heavily fortified and impossible for any demons to enter it?” MK said, tapping his hands together in a nervous motion. He had kinda forgotten to go over this part of the plan with Mei.

“Yeah, except for the time that Bull Clone General broke in and almost stole my family’s most prized possession,” the Dragon Horse Girl said, holding up the Dragon Blade for emphasis. “My parents would have a stroke if I willingly brought the son of Demon Bull King into their house.”

“Oh, right, that would make sense.”

It was growing more apparent by the minute that neither of them had really thought this plan through.

🔥🍜

_“Seriously? You’re making Yin and Jin look smarter at this point, kid. And both of those two are a couple peaches short of a tree.”_

_“What does that even mean?”_

_“You’re exactly proving my point.”_

_“No, your metaphor is just confusing.”_

_“No, what I said was a simile. A metaphor is when—”_

_“Can we please get back to the story now?”_

_“Don’t interrupt, kid. I’m teaching you a very valuable lesson. You see, a metaphor is when someone…”_

_*Groan * “…someone put me out of my misery, please.”_

🔥🍜

Eventually Wukong allowed his student to resume his story after giving a two-hour lecture on the context of metaphors. After that long lesson, MK went to explain that Mei was able to convince him that taking Red Son to his loft was the better choice than her home. As she put it best the Bull Family wouldn’t think of looking there since it was so obvious, and they’d assume Team Monkie Kid would know that too.

MK was a little annoyed that his place was now going to become an impromptu demon jail (while internally freaking over how messy the apartment still was) but ultimately accepted that it was going to happen. He helped Mei with dragging Red Son’s body onto her bike. The two friends—and one still cataleptic demon—drove through the city until arriving on the street where Pigsy’s Noodles was located. Mei made sure to kill the motor before Pigsy and/or Tang could hear them and then she parked over on the other side of the corner. They used the fire escape to climb up to the loft and snuck through MK’s window that he always left open just a crack when he wanted to get in and not be seen by his hair-trigger tempered boss.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” Mei asked as soon as they placed the demon over MK’s bed since they couldn’t find any other spot in the room that was big enough for Red Son to lie on.

“I feel like this is something I need to do by myself. Maybe if I just explain everything clearly to him, he won’t get too mad and blow up my room, again.”

Mei didn’t appear swayed by what MK was saying but respected him enough to make his own choices. “If you say so.” She did insist that he call her on speed dial in case _something_ happened. The Dragon Girl repeated her request a second time when MK didn’t sound completely attentive with keeping his promise. MK listened as Mei’s bike roared as she rode away back to her estate, leaving the Monkie Kid alone with Red Son.

With nothing else to do but wait for the son of DBK to wake up, MK went over to his chair sit there while sketching in his Unauthorized Biography of the Monkey King. He wanted to do a little bit of shading on the moment when Monkey King tricked the Yellow Brows Great King into eating him and then punching him in his stomach.

A gross, but clever trick.

🔥🍜

_“You’re darn right it was a clever trick. Nobody’s seen or hear from that guy in a while.”_

_“It wasn’t the most exciting fight, but it was still fun to read.”_

_“Anyway, are we getting to the part where he wakes up yet?”_

_“Why do you sound really excited all of a sudden, Monkey King?”_

_“Because this is probably the part where Red Son got really shocked that you kidnapped him. And then you get all flustered and must explain your scheme, right?”_

_“Umm….”_

🔥🍜

MK was in the middle of finalizing a rough sketch of Monkey King rescuing Tripitaka from some unspecified demon when he heard a small groan. He looked, noticing that the sky outside his window was now pitch black and then saw Red Son’s body starting to move. The Monkie Kid quickly summoned the Staff, changing it from its compact needle size to the width of a rice bowl.* He definitely wasn’t shaking nervously as the fire demon slowly awoke from his injury-induced slumber. MK also wanted to point out that he totally had an ingenious plan to prevent the demon from attempting to break free.

“Don’t move!” MK ordered, pointing the tip of his Staff at the recuperating immortal who was blinking his eyes, adjusting to the fluorescent lighting in the loft.

“n-Noodle Boy?” Red Son mumbled, looking like he was still out of it.

“It’s MK, actually. I really don’t know why you keep calling me that, unless you don’t know my name, but anyway—it’s me, the Monkie Kid!” He stood, attempting to pull a cool pose he’d been practicing, only to accidentally hit Red Son’s chin with the Staff. When Red Son started to get angry (his eyes shifting to that familiar crimson) MK quickly apologized and begged him to not wreck his apartment again.

“I’m in your little hovel once more?” Red Son asked, just starting to take in his surroundings.

MK started to feel offended at the older male’s words, even if they were half-true. “It’s my home and you’re stuck with me here, whether you like it or not,” he blurted the last part out, forgetting the whole speech he was planning to use for a second.

“Wait…” The demon looked straight at MK, his eyes changing to green for a second before switching to the neutral dark the human was used to seeing. “ **You kidnapped me**?”

“Uhhh, yeah. **I** did and no one else.” MK fibbed. He didn’t want to drag Mei into the situation even though she had helped him earlier.

“And you brought me here to your… home,” Red Son’s pausing on the last word implied he probably was originally intending to use a different term. MK thought he was grateful that the demon was trying to sound more pleasant, though he wasn’t sure why that made him happy.

“I did…” Then he remembered the speech and cleared his throat before he continued, “and I’m keeping you here so there’s nothing you or your parents can do about it.” MK finished, pleased at himself for how confident he sounded.

“I mean, I could try to escape. The only horrible thing these ropes can do to me is giving my wrists a rash.” Red Son jerked his head to the steel cables that were holding him in place. He was even able to push himself up, so the demon wasn’t lying on his side anymore.

The two of them were now directly facing each other with only being six feet apart.

“Oh, so you are going to back to DBK and Princess Iron Fan?” MK asked. He started to hold up his Staff in a threatening manner only to pause his actions when Red Son shook his head.

“Don’t bother.” He motioned with his head for MK to lower his weapon. “I know where this is going to go. Be rest assured that I’m not going to make any attempts to leave.”

MK wanted to clean his ears just to be sure he heard the fire demon right, but thought better of it. “Wait? Really?” Was this a trick? This had to be.

“I won’t…. unless you want me to,” Red Son added, sounding a bit nervous?

“N-no!” the Monkie Kid yelled before coughing. “A-hem, I mean. No, that would kinda ruin my whole plan if you did.”

“You planned this?”

MK nodded. “Yeah.”

“So, this wasn’t a spur of the moment? You’ve been wanting to do this for a while now?” An expression was forming on the young demon’s face, but MK couldn’t really pin down what it was. That green color also returned in his eyes.

“Of course,” the Monkie Kid said truthfully. “I’ve had to do something to make my intentions clear and bringing you here seemed like the best idea.”

“I see.” Red Son said as he looked away. The tension Red Son had on his shoulders drooped and the unreadable look he had on earlier was replaced with what appeared to be the very faint hint of the side of his lips curling upwards.

“So, uh, I’ve never done something like this before, do you want me to get you something to drink?” MK asked awkwardly in an attempt to break the silence.

“…Green tea with a sugar cube,” the demon said eventually.

“I only have sweeteners, would that be okay?” MK asked while he went to his cupboard to pull out a mug and a green tea packet.

“It will suffice.” Red Son shrugged the best he could with still being tied up.

MK nodded and headed over to his sink overflowing of dirty dishes to fill up the mug. He winced at seeing how many plates and bowls were in the sink and made a mental note to try and clean them now that he was hopefully going to have some free time for himself again. After the water was half an inch from the top MK turned the facet off and placed the mug inside his microwave. He couldn’t use his secondhand tea kettle because it broke recently. It was times like these he imagined living in a real apartment with a real stove. He easily saw himself boiling tea the old-fashioned way in one of those nice kettles Sandy owned. Maybe he could find a Monkey King themed one someday?

“I certainly hope you haven’t brought another person to your home like you’ve done with me.” MK heard Red Son say while they both waited for the water to heat up.

“I just said I didn’t… have you?” he asked curiously. MK recalled the legend where Red Son’s younger self had kidnapped Tripitaka, but he wasn’t sure if that was accurate. Monkey King did reveal that a few of the tales humans wrote were simply that.

For reasons MK didn’t fully understand the demon’s face suddenly matched the primary color of his hair. “You-I-NO! I would never-I can’t believe you’d assume I would do **that**.”

“Oh,” MK frowned. He had no idea the demon would be that distressed about kidnapping someone. Red Son was surprisingly calm about the situation until that moment. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you upset.” He was starting to worry about his bed being burnt to a crisp if the fire demon got any madder.

“No, what you said was a legitimate question. It was fair of you to ask… just to be clear you are my first.”

“I’m your first kidnapper?” MK tilted his head in confusion.

Red Son rolled his dark eyes at him. “No, fool, I’ve been taken plenty of times before, but I always managed to escape on my own since the demons that tried to take me were complete morons. And weaker. Very weak. It was almost pathetic when I beaten them up.”

MK couldn’t help but wonder how those demons would’ve faired against him if Red Son thought they were pathetic. “Well, I guess I’m glad you decided to not do that with me,” he decided to say

“Aside from the obvious, I wouldn’t. Not with you, I mean.”

The Monkie Kid tilted his head, unsure of what the demon was implying. They had fought plenty of times before (more often in the last week, in fact) so he didn’t know why the sudden change.

_Maybe it’s based on some weird demon etiquette? Oh! He probably is deciding to wait until his parents come rescue him,_ MK concluded. That made perfect sense. Red Son wasn’t going to waste his energy when he had two caring parents probably already worried about where he was. That reminded him to remind Mei to send out a letter in the morning to said demon couple so they would know what he wanted from them in return for their son’s, well, return.

“Is the time on your clock accurate?” Red Son asked out of the blue.

MK was brought out of his thoughts and glanced over at the monkey-themed digital clock that he had remembered to place on his dresser.

The time read passed 8 o’clock.

“Whoa,” MK leaped in shock. “I guess I waited a little longer for you to wake up than I thought.” He chuckled sheepishly.

Red Son looked unimpressed. “Are you going to get some food then?”

“I don’t feel very hungry—”

As if on cue a loud rumble echoed through the room. MK became flustered after the fire demon started to laugh.

“Can you keep it down,” he requested. “Nobody knows you’re here.”

Red Son paused, taking a glance at the door. “Would they disapprove of me being here?”

“Uh, something like that.” MK decided to go with as his answer. He honestly wasn’t sure what Pigsy’s exact reaction would be, but he might get mad for making a reckless decision with only Mei’s help. Tang might find the situation amusing before comparing it to some ancient epic he knew, claiming that the roles were now switched with MK being the evil monster and Red Son the damsel-in-distress. Sandy would probably just offer Red Son some yoga lessons and ask if he liked cats once he knew the fire demon wasn’t a threat.

“I’ll be sure to remain quiet for now on,” Red Son promised without any hesitation.

MK blinked. “Oh, great, thanks… So, do you want something to eat?” _Please don’t say humans. Please don’t say humans._ the young man thought after realizing that he should’ve been more careful with his choice of words.

“Is there anything in that hole-in-wall that’s not noodle-based?”

MK gave him a flat stare. “It’s a noodle shop. That’s 95% of the food on the menu.”

“And the other five?”

“Fried tofu, rice cakes and three smaller batches of soup.”

The demon let out a sigh before shaking his head. “What do you have that’s vegetarian?”

MK perked up. “You don’t eat meat?”

Red Son rolled his eyes as if MK had just asked a stupid question. “When your father is technically an animal demon, along with most of his allies, wouldn’t you want to stay clear of the meat that remind you of him and other similar looking demons? The only other options to eat are either humans or fruit and vegetables. I prefer eating things that don’t usually talk back.”

MK laughed nervously while rubbing his neck. “Right.”

He decided to smoothly change the increasingly awkward conversation to a new topic related to all the meat-free options on Pigsy’s menu. After some back and forth the demon prince agreed to a bowl of _dan dan_ noodles with tofu substituting the beef and MK decided to get himself some veggie _lo mein_ , his favorite.

After MK checked to see if Pigsy was distracted he snuck into the kitchen and headed for the refrigerator’s freezer. Inside were premade bowls MK always had for when he needed a meal at the ready and was too tired to make something fresh. He would’ve made something now, but he didn’t want to take a risk while Pigsy was right in the other room talking to a customer. MK carefully pulled out two bowls with plastic wrap covering the tops and quietly climbed up the stairs. He entered his room finding (to his immense relief) Red Son sitting calmly as he had left him.

“Do you ever clean this place, or it perpetually untidy on purpose?” the demon complained after scrutinizing the room.

MK frowned, feeling a bit offended ahain. “I clean when I can, okay? I don’t really have the time to do with how busy my schedule is.”

Red Son humph’ed. “It seems to me you’re always goofing off somewhere when I see you.”

“I like to have fun and help my friends, is that a big problem?”

“It is when your room looks like a wind spirit ransacked it.”

The Monkie Kid pouted, feeling even more humiliated than normal. “Do you want me to heat up your noodles, or not?”

After getting a resigned ‘yes’ in response MK put both bowls into the microwave once he turned on the defrost button. He sat back down on his chair to wait until both meals were thawed and heated thoroughly.

“Could you please let me out of this rope?” Red Son asked as soon as MK returned. “They will be cumbersome when I’ll be eating soon. I could melt the steel, but you would probably not want me to make a mess.”

MK didn’t heed to the threat-laced tone and instead snorted. “Oh, no I was totally planning on spoon-feeding you your meal.”

“W-what?” The color on Red Son’s face drained.

Wukong’s successor burst out laughing. “I’m just kidding. Here, I’ll let you out if you’re still planning to keep your promise on not trying to escape.”

Red Son lifted his head up defiantly. “I always keep my promises.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” MK replied with an amused glint. Slowly he approached the bounded demon and with one swift finish removed the steel rope off, giving him his freedom. The two males stared at one another for a full minute. Neither of them showing any signs of movement. Both jumped after a ding sound appeared.

“That would be the noodles,” MK forced out a nervous chuckle. “I’ll just… go get it,” he lamely finished.

It was official. Things were definitely awkward.

“Not bad for recently thawed noodles, huh?”

“They’re… passable.” The fire demon had the same judgmental look from when he criticized the flat.

MK smiled weakly. “Yeah, there not nearly as amazing as Pigsy’s but I try.”

Red Son’s head shot up. “You made this?” he asked while pointing to his bowl.

“Yeah, I di—”

“I retrack my previous statement. This is the best bowl of noodles I’ve ever had,” the Demon Bull Prince said quickly.

MK blinked owlishly, bemused at Red Son’s sudden outburst. Was it some weird demon thing? Or maybe he thought MK would take his bowl away if he offended him?

“You don’t have to say that.” the dark-haired young man said.

“I meant every word I said—” Red Son tried to say before MK cut him off.

“Seriously, I know I’m not the world’s greatest cook. You shouldn’t be scared if you insulted me.”

“I was trying to be polite,” he attempted again.

MK raised an eyebrow. “Afte you said it was just passable a second ago?”

Getting caught at the contradiction caused Red Son to gape for a moment. It would’ve been funny to MK under different circumstances. MK watched as the demon looked as though he was trying to find something else to say before he gave up and sighed. “I’m not very good at this.” he confessed, looking just about as insecure as MK was feeling.

“You don’t have to pretend to be nice,” MK told him.

“I’m not trying to pretend.”

“Look, this whole thing is kinda unusual for us both, so let’s just see where it goes without making it unpleasant?” MK suggested in an attempt to make peace with the fire demon prince.

Red Son appeared conflicted for a moment before acceding to MK’s request.

The two ate at a much more comfortable silence before they both finished their meals around the same time. MK took both bowls and placed them into the sink that was sadly already full of other dishes that needed to be cleaned. He heard Red Son mutter out a ‘tch’ but made no further comments. MK then walked over to his drawer to pull out his pink sleeping bag.

“What are you pulling that out for?” the son of the Demon Bull King asked him.

MK turned around to look at Red Son and answered, “I’m gonna need this to sleep on the floor, duh.”

Red Son blinked twice before giving MK a confused stare. “You’re choosing to sleep there?” He pointed to the floor with a repulsed expression, as though the ground offended him. Knowing his high rank, he probably did see himself mightier than the very ground lowly mortals like MK walked on every day.

“Uh, yeah, I’d feel a lot better if you were sleeping on the bed instead of me. It’s way more comfortable than the floor.” MK would know after inadvertently sleeping there… more than one time.

The fire demon narrowed his eyes, looking a little lost. “Is this some kind of human ritual?”

MK compressed his lips together, unsure once more at what the demon was implying. “I usually call it being polite.”

“…. If that is what you want.” Red Son said, turning his head away.

For a second MK could’ve sworn the demon’s tone sounded like disappointment but brushed it off as inconsequential.

“Anyway, I guess I’ll see you in the morning?” MK said, not meaning for it to come off as a question, but it happened anyway.

MK pretended that he didn’t notice the demon staring at him while he set up his sleeping bag. He also acted like having a sleepover with one of his enemies is completely normal. Along with his uncharacteristically complacent behavior. Once MK settled onto the floor, he heard Red Son let out a sigh before hearing bedsheets shifting. MK was worried about the Demon Bull Prince not keeping his promise about staying until the sound of snoring was audible. MK opened his eyes just to be sure he wasn’t being tricked and was surprised to see Red Son was still in his bed fast asleep. He had a slight frown, but the rest of his features appeared calm. It was probably the first time MK saw the demon not looking overtly moody. He then turned over to his side and pulled out his phone to check the time.

8:31 PM

_Seriously?_ MK thought. He hadn’t gone to bed this early since he was still… living with his foster parents. Usually around this time MK was either doing a binge re-watch of _Monkey King: The Animated Series_ , or out ‘portying’ with Mei until well past midnight.

After thinking of his friend, the Monkie Kid chose to pull his phone out and text her of his progress. And because he was bored. He found the private thread he’d been using with Mei for important occasions and wasted no time with sending his first message to her.

**MK** 🐒 : [Do u have the letter 4 DBK and PIF ready 4 tomorrow?]

He had to only wait less than a minute for her response.

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [Yep! How’s it going with RS?]

The successor to Wukong’s Staff pondered over what to say before deciding to just tell her the truth.

**MK** 🐒 : [He’s being very civil, TBH]

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [4 real??!!!111]

**MK** 🐒 : [He even complimented on my food]

MK purposely left out the first part of the demon not being polite about the food initially because he was still unsure about that whole exchange.

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [Well u do make a mean bowl of **🚫** 🍖wanton noodles]

The young man playfully rolled his eyes at his friend’s attempt to compliment him. He wanted to reply that his cooking wasn’t nearly as good as Pigsy’s but wanted to keep the conversation focused on Red Son.

**MK** 🐒 : [… He’s now sleeping on my bed.]

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [Ur not in bed with him, r u?]

MK titled his head in confusion until a minute passed and he understood the subtext. His cheeks turned a deep shade of cinnabar before he rapidly texted Mei back.

**MK** 🐒 : [Oh Gods, no!!111 I just didn’t want him 2 sleep on floor cuz his folks might try 2 kill me if they thought I was hurting him]

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [….Ok?]

**MK** 🐒 : [IDK. It sounded like a good idea at the time]

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [Speaking of good ideas, what’s ur plan 4 RS tomorrow?]

**MK** 🐒 : [I was thinking of winging it.]

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [Ok. I can see that working while ur doing Monkie Kid stuff, but r u sure that’s we should be doing in this situation as well?]

**MK** 🐒 : [RS said he won’t try 2 leave]

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [And u actually believe him?]

**MK** 🐒 : [🤷♂️]

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [😑 Boi!]

**MK** 🐒 : [Just trust me, ok? I think RS is telling the truth]

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [How do u know it’s not a trick?]

**MK** 🐒 : [Because he said so…?]

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [R u being serious?]

**MK** 🐒 : [He’s been in my room since u left. He didn’t even try 2 run after I left 2 get us dinner. Trust me if he wanted 2 leave, he would’ve done it by now. So, everything is fine. No need 2 worry]

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [….Ur lucky that I <3 u]

**MK** 🐒 : [😊I know]

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [Promise me u’ll call/text if he does something bad]

**MK** 🐒 : [I will. TTYL]

**Mei-Bei** 🐉 : [BFN]

MK shut off his phone after that and turned over his pillow so most of his body rested on it. It was times like these he wished he owned an inflatable mattress.

🔥🍜

_“Seriously, kid? You didn’t catch any of his undertones, like, at all?”_

_*Groaning * “I knooooow~! But how was I supposed to know **that’s** what he meant?” _

_“Have you not noticed the number of the times he stared at you when no one else was looking?”_

_“…What?”_

_*Deep sigh * “Just keep going. This is starting to get interesting.”_

🔥🍜

MK awoke to the sound of his usual alarm. As per usual he panickily ran around his room to find the cleanest clothes he could find, grab a snack on a counter and hurried downstairs before the clock chimed at 9.

“That’s an interesting looking breakfast you have there,” Tang said to MK.

“Huh-what?” MK had been busy with helping Pigsy open the shop and didn’t hear the older man at first.

“The _jianbing_ in your hand,” Tang noted while pointing at the one hand MK wasn’t using to clean the counter with. MK looked down and was surprised to see that he was holding a fried pancake filled with fresh vegetables, tofu and sweet sauce inside.

The headband wearing young man’s eyes were wide as saucers. He didn’t remember going to the market and buying that food. Normally MK went with store-bought steamed buns or dumplings for his breakfasts. Or even Western-styled cereal on the occasion, but he only bought the kind with Monkey King’s name on it, just to be clear.

Unless MK suddenly developed sleepwalking disorder in less than 12 hours the only other answer was up one floor. He didn’t have enough time to process this information when the other man talked again.

“I didn’t know you knew how to cook those,” the bespectacled man commented with a mildly impressed tone. Tang was constantly informed of the kid’s progress and cooking ever since Pigsy started teaching him.

“Uhh, that’s because I didn’t,” MK inadvertently blurted out. He fought back a wince after realizing that Tang was going to want an explanation and the Monkie Kid was a terrible liar. He was lucky that Red Son bought his lie that he was the only person that kidnapped him.

And as expected Tang raised a curious eyebrow before opening his mouth to ask MK the inevitable question. Or at least he was clearly planning to speak until a familiar pig demon beat him to it.

“Kid, how many times have I told you not to eat while you’re at work,” Pigsy scolded the human.

MK shoved the remaining jianbing into his mouth before he rushed over to the sink to sanitize his hands and then apologized before getting back to work.

“Also, I noticed that a certain someone forgot to not only tell me he was planning to use the shop’s kitchen after hours, but he didn’t clean up the stove.” His boss gave him a pointed stare.

The Monkie Kid held a flummoxed look until it dawned on him on who did use the kitchen last night.

“Um, I’m sorry?” MK said while frowning.

  
  
He watched as Pigsy sighed and pinch the bridge of his nose. “Just remember to ask and clean up next time? I was worried that someone broke-in last night and used the kitchen like some thief.”

“Heh, yeah that would be bad,” the noodle delivery boy replied, smiling nervously.

The glare on Pigsy softened somewhat before he ordered MK to continue helping him with opening the shop for the morning. 

_Why did Red Son cook me breakfast? Or was it even for me?_ Were just one of the many thoughts swirling through MK’s mind as he went through the motions of his shift. He didn’t have enough time to go back upstairs to personally ask the fire demon when a large number of food orders came in and he had to go practically all over town to deliver noodles. In fact, it wasn’t until the Monkie Kid’s entire shift was over was when he could return to the loft.

“Hey Red Son,” MK called out as he entered the room, his eyes on the door he was closing. “I just wanted to ask if you went—” the Monkie Kid paused after he finally looked inside his apartment.

All the trash that had littered the floor and most of the counter space was gone. In its place was large platters of food. There were all traditional meals MK had only seen during holidays when Pigsy invited all their friends for a homecooked banquet. The Anhui-styled meals that were prepared came with all the herbs and spices MK was familiar with but done in a vegetarian twist. He spotted steamed bamboo shoots cooked with dried wild mushrooms, a platter of hairy tofu, and a large bowl of sweet potato starch noodles with bok choy and garlic.

MK was starting to wonder if he was in the correct building when a voice spoke up, “Do you like it?”

“Huh?” The black-haired young man turned his head fast to look over at the bed to see Red Son sitting there, holding a bowl of rice in one hand and a plate of fruit covered in a small layer of sugar in the other. He frowned out of some form of nervousness MK never saw before clearing his throat.

“The food,” Red Son clarified. “And the room. I cleaned it up, obviously.”

MK looked around, still unsure of what he should be feeling. It was then he noticed that the lights were off and what was illuminating the room instead were dozens of candles either sitting on counters or hanging from little chains the demon prince installed. MK was sure Red Son put those up since he never had them there prior to the young immortal’s arrival.

“I only threw out the things that clearly appeared to be garbage,” Red Son said further. “Old takeout, ripped up paper and the likes. I made sure to not throw out what looked important to you and had those stacked over on that small table over there so you may sort through those later.”

MK glanced at the table Red Son jerked his head to and was surprised to see every one of his drawings, half-drawn sketches and unfinished notes neatly organized into two large piles.

“You,” MK gaped as he stared at Red Son. “You did all this?” He gestured with spread arms towards the entire room. “Why?”

Red Son frowned again. He placed the rice and dessert on the bed before giving the human a humorless stare.

MK gulped, worried he was about to be lectured for a second time that day.

“You never told me what you thought about the jianbing you took with you this morning. I assumed you must not have enjoyed it because you never came back for the rest that I made.”

“You made more?” MK asked.

“I had a whole plate made and you only grabbed one of them,” the fire demon made clear, looking put off and then pouted. “You didn’t even come back to say a simple thank you for all the hard work I put into the food.”

Now MK was feeling a wave of guilt submerge him. “I’m sorry. I was just rushing out because I was going to be late for work. Again.”

The demon’s despondent stare soon hardened. “So I noticed. Have you ever thought of setting up your alarm so you would have enough time to get ready in the morning?”

MK smiled sheepishly. “Most of the time I sleep through my alarm. I didn’t last night because I went to bed early.”

“Going to bed at 9 constitutes as early for you?” The demon gave MK an incredulous stare. “Do I even want to know when you normally turn in for the night?”

“Probably not,” MK said in agreement. “But anyway, about the food. It was super yummy and I did like it, but~ just for future reference you’ll need to tell me when you want to use the kitchen so I can tell Pigsy ‘cause he kinda got a little mad earlier, thinking that I did it. Now, I’m not mad at **you** for what you did. It’s all on me since I didn’t tell ya last night.”

“I know,” Red Son revealed. “I overheard you and the pig’s conversation. The floorboards aren’t very thick up here, you know?”

MK blushed in embarrassment. “Oh.”

“And I felt gravely mortified for having the blame placed onto you. That’s why I made this meal to not only make up for what I assumed was an abysmal breakfast, but also to ensure you that I won’t be making the same mistake of cooking without getting permission from you first.”

MK homed in on a certain phrase the demon just said as soon as he heard it.

“Make up for what you did?” MK asked. “Like as an apology?”

“Yes,” Red Son replied.

The Monkey King fan almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You mean to tell me that you went through all this trouble just so you could apologize for sneaking into the kitchen last night and nothing else?”

“What else is there?”

MK threw the demon a sharp look. “Oh, I dunno? Maybe all the times you threatened the city? Like when you and your family unleashed the White Bone Demon, terrorizing everyone before it went on to possess a poor, defenseless little kid? Or the time with the Weather Station where you caused multiple storms all over the planet and not just Megapolis? Or maybe even when we first met, and you tried to kill me just so you could get Monkey King’s Staff?” With every incident MK listed, the angrier he became. “Do you not feel sorry for any of that?”

The red demon shot up and marched over until he was toe-to-steeled toe with MK. Neither Red Son nor MK backed down from the other’s heated glare.

“I thought you had already forgiven me for all of those times in the past,” the former Red Sage King explained in all seriousness.

MK looked at the older male as though he grew a second head (which might’ve been possible considering him being a demon and all). “What did I ever do to make you think that I’ve forgiven you for any of that?”

“Because you—when you—Gah!” Red Son threw his hands up in frustration before he started to pace and mutter under his breath. He looked back at MK with a contorted expression before he hissed out, “Do I need to get on my knees, begging for your forgiveness?”

MK snorted while rolling his own eyes. “Sure, why no—” He paused on his own accord at what he saw Red Son do next. The redheaded demon kowtowed in front of MK, bending so low to the ground making MK wondered if his forehead was actually touching the literal floor.

“I, Red Son, child of Demon Bull King and Princess Iron Fan, nephew of Immortal Ruyi may beseech the successor of Sun Wukong to accept—”

“Stop—doing that!” MK ordered, turning his head away in embarrassment. “Seriously, that’s really weird. You’re acting like I’m the Emperor or something. Please, get up.”

Ultimately Red Son did stand up again and stood before MK once more. “If you won’t accept my formal apology what else must I do?” He looked at MK, appearing frightened. “Do you want me to prove my sincerity by finding the lost _9 Tripod Cauldrons_? The Five-Colors Brush so you may use it to bring to life your amazing artwork? What is it must I do for you?”

“No,” MK said at once. “I don’t wany either of those things. I don’t want my willingness to accept someone’s apology be based on what stuff they get for me.” Not even the MK from six months ago would’ve like to be bribed that way.

“You’re not exactly giving much to work with here. What must I do for you to accept my apology?”

“I—I guess, promise me you won’t do any more evil stuff anymore?” MK suggested, even though he was pretty sure Red Son would oppose to such a request.

“Is that all?” the demon asked without delay, much to MK’s shock.

“Wait, you’d really do that?” The Monkie Kid couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Again.

Red Son sighed, his lips forming into a frown. “If we are confronted by my parents, I wish not to bring any harm to them. I will refuse to hurt them, even if you ask me to. But if we do face other opponents and you do ask me to fight with you, then I won’t have any issues with that.”

MK was very tempted to pinch himself just to be sure he hadn’t fallen asleep and that this was all a very crazy dream. Either that or Yin and Jin kidnapped him again and placed him in the Calabash. But MK was pretty sure that wasn’t the case since there were no tremors to speak of.

Red Son seemed to interpret MK’s uncommunicativeness as a yes and directed him to the miniature banquet he had prepared for them. The Monkie Kid wanted to say no and focus on the main topic but his stomach protested and decided to agree with the Bull Demon Prince for once.

“Where did you get the ingredients for all of this food anyway?” MK asked once he picked out the food, he thought he would like.

“I used what meager constituents you had in your refrigerator for breakfast,” Red Son revealed, giving the mini fridge a detested stare as though it offended him personally. “As for tonight’s dinner, I procured what I could find on the mountains outside of the city after getting permission from the local deities there.”

MK tentatively placed a piece of bamboo inside his mouth and received a taste of light salty flavor mixed with equal sweetness. The blending of the contrasting aromas was a welcoming experience for the dark-haired young man. The mushrooms and other vegetables where a bonus of zest MK had no idea he wanted before. He wasted no time taking a more eager bite from his food.

“Cooking this way helped me learn how to control my fire better,” Red Son went on saying. “Preparing Anhui under the correct temperature is essential and just about each food is prepared for differently.”

MK soaked up what he was learning from the redheaded demon along with the food he was rather unrefinedly eating.

“The people in that region also believe that a meal should not only taste good, but also be good for you. That’s why the Anhui rely heavily on fresh ingredients and herbs in their meals,” Red Son lifted a strand of bok choy with his chopsticks. He studied the vegetable with light interest. MK watched as the demon carefully placed it in his mouth and chewed on the greens, savoring it. “They rightfully believe having a balanced diet can lead to a long life with less chances of getting sick than fattier alternatives,” Red Son finished, looking over at the Monkie Kid with a knowing look. He rolled his eyes after MK frowned at him. “Please, I saw all of those snacks you had lying around while I cleaned your home today. Don’t you realize how many artificial preservatives are in those?”

“I exercise enough that I burn away all the calories,” MK said defensively.

“And yet you still feel very tired and hungry afterwards, right?”

MK didn’t want to agree with the demon, but~ he might have a—slight—point.

Red Son seemed to read MK like a comic book and said further, “Eating healthy will help change that. It’ll also help you sleep better at night.”

“It could do that?” the young human asked with interest.

“Like I said, healthy foods, like the one you’re eating at the moment, can do wonders to your health if you give it a chance.”

“You know, I never ate bamboo before,” MK admitted almost out of the blue after he finished munching on a shoot. “But I gotta say if I have more prepared like this, I might be willing to give another Anhui meal a shot in the future.”

The fire demon smiled, appearing a bit smug. “Good.”

“I wouldn’t have really thought of trying one of these foods out if it weren’t for you, so I guess I’m trying to say, thanks?” MK tried to not sound too inept as he said that, though he was still not used to having an aimable conversation with a maybe-former antagonist of his.

Somehow MK’s words caused Red Son to smile again, this time a bit softer. “I am trying to prove that I’m willing to work with you, aren’t I?”

MK thought over what the Demon Bull Prince said and wisely replied, “I think another good thing to do is have you apologize to my friends.”

Red Son looked at the other with an uncertain expression. “Would they be fine with our state of affairs?”

“Umm,” MK bit the inside of his cheek before answering, “Well, I think Pigsy will be the most vocal about it.”

“Naturally,” the son of DBK said with an eyeroll. “He always seems to be yelling about something.”

MK chose to ignore that comment and focus on the rest of his friends he was listing. “Mr. Tang might be a little shocked at first, but I think he’d be cool with it and Sandy… Sandy might be totally okay with it, he’s usually calm about everything so he’ll be willing to accept your apology first, I think.”

“And the Dragon Horse Girl? Besides the pig, she’s the most loyal towards you. She won’t be upset about me staying here with you?”

“Her name’s Mei,” MK said flatly. “Mei will be okay with it. She trusts me.” _And she was the one who suggested you living here in the first place._ he wanted to add but didn’t.

“If you say so, Noodle Boy.”

MK sighed before placing his plate down. “Can you please~ stop calling me that? I already told you my real name earlier.”

“Ah, yes, you did mention it.” Red Son said with a look of understanding.

“And you aren’t calling me by it because…?” MK crossed his arms, giving him a pointed look.

Red Son shifted his eyes to look anywhere but the spiky-haired mortal.

MK snorted, “Do you, not remember my name?”

“Sh-shut up,” the demon ordered while MK continued to laugh.

“That’s just—” he continued to chuckle, feeling like his insides were about to burst. “We’ve been fighting for over six months now and you never bothered learning my name?”

“I’ve been busy with a lot of work,” Red Son tried to use as an excuse.

MK wiped away a tear. “Right~ you never had a single moment to overhear one of my friends calling me MK?”

Red Son sighed. “I already know that your companions call you that, fool.”

He stopped laughing. “Then, wait, what do you mean—”

“I mean, I don’t know your **actual** name.”

MK’s mouth formed an ‘o’. “Oh, that’s what you meant. My actual name is Qí Xiǎotiān.”

Red Son raised a brow. “Your name is ‘little sky?’”

MK smiled fondly. “You see, my dad’s name was Caihong and my mother was Yun so they went with continuing the theme by naming me after the sky.”

“I see… Do you no longer live with them for some reason?”

The smile on MK’s face faded as his brows furrowed. “I don’t like talking about it.”

Red Son flinched. “Forgive me, I wasn’t trying—”

MK waved him off. “It’s okay. You didn’t know.”

The awkward silence was threatening to resurface again so MK cleverly alternated the conversation to something else. “Wait, earlier you said my artwork was amazing? Do you really like it?”

The demon had lifted a mushroom with his chopstick as MK asked the question. He froze midway as his eyes turned white. “Uhh? You remember that?”

MK nodded, feeling a little bashful suddenly. “I mean, I don’t really show my art to just about everyone, so it’s really nice when someone I still don’t know that well compliments my work. Is there anything in particular that you like?”

Red Son averted his gaze from the Monkie Kid, looking a bit shy himself. “I thought the landscape of the Fiery Mountains you drew looked lovely.”

MK couldn’t stop himself from preening at the praise before he remembered a key detail. “You lived there for a while, didn’t you?”

The fire demon brightened in recognition before nodding.

“What was it like? Was it kinda like the Flaming Mountains that surrounds Flower-Fruit Mountain?”

Red Son went to explain the differences between both locales with MK listening intently. The rest of the night continued to go that route with the two unlikely roommates sharing details about their homes, their lives before meeting each other and much, much more.

🔥🍜

_“A candlelit dinner, huh? And you still hadn’t figured it out?”_

_“…Yes.”_

_“By the Buddha, you’re an embarrassment to humanity.”_

_“I know!”_

_“Aww, kid, don’t cry on me. I just got the couch reupholstered.”_

_*Sniffle * “Sowwy.”_

_*Sounds of side-hugging poor, clueless child can be heard* “Okay, so what happened next?”_

🔥🍜

For the next week, the strain between the two males started to lessen after their first dinner. MK took Red Son’s advice on sleeping earlier and eating healthier. He realized that not only was he even more awake in the mornings, but he was even able to wake up an hour before his shift and have enough time to get properly ready without rushing out the door as per usual. Red Son would snark that MK would have an even better sleeping schedule if he slept in his bed, but the noodle shop employee did not want to open that can of worms.

The Monkie Kid spent his extra time in the morning brushing his teeth, washing his face, making sure his room was tidy and having a full breakfast that Red Son always made for them. MK said that he could start rotating with him so he could make some breakfasts, so it didn’t feel one-sided. Red Son then asked if MK even knew how to cook anything besides noodles before the hero recessively admitted that he doesn’t. Red Son then promised to give MK cooking lessons in response, much to the Monkie Kid’s delight (much to his later shock after he recognized how strange that was).

On the day of the first cooking lesson, which happened to be on a Sunday (the only day of the week Pigsy’s was ever closed), MK got up early enough to when _Panda Store_ opened and see if Lee had those lotus roots back in stock. The young man was sure they would go great with the congee that Red Son was planning to teach him to make after waking up. MK had started to climb down the stairs to the empty noodle shop when he realized something was wrong.

There were people in the shop. Four people to be precise. Well, five if someone were to include the blue cat with an orange mohawk.

“G-guys?” MK said, startled.

“We need to talk,” his boss said while crossing his arms. Sandy and Tang held similarly concern looks while Mei was a bit more forlorn.

“About what?” the Monkie Kid asked nervously.

“About the fact that you’ve been keeping the son of your archnemesis inside your flat for the past week?” Pigsy said in accusative tone.

MK’s eyes turned white. “How did you—”

“Find out?” Tang cut in. “Pigsy said he saw the store’s security feed on the night he thought you went into the kitchen without asking permission and saw that it was Red Son and not you.”

“That and the floorboards up in your room aren’t very thick,” the pig-man said with a knowing look.

_Aw, dang it._ MK lowered his head in disgrace after figuring out the jig was up.

“I knew something fishy was going on since that night and I waited until you willing to tell me what was happening,” Pigsy explained before his frown deepened. “But now it’s been a week and you hadn’t said anything. So, I knew I had to stage some sort of intervention and that’s why I called Tang, Sandy and Mei over after telling them what I found out.”

Mei, who was sitting at the bar closest to the door gave MK a helpless shrug that nobody, but he saw.

“Xiǎotiān,” Red Son’s voice suddenly called from upstairs before coming closer. “I think I might’ve used hairbrush you lent me wrong. You see, I was—” the demon then stopped talking after, what MK assumed, he saw the unexpected company.

“Xiǎotiān?”

“Yes?” MK responded, purposely ignoring the pointed eyebrow Mei was shooting at him behind his back.

“You told me that the shop was closed on Sundays,” the demon reminded him

“I did.”

“Is today Sunday?”

“Yes.”

“Then why is the pig here if the shop is supposed to be closed?”

“I don’t know,” MK said at the same time Pigsy shouted a vexed, “Pig!?” while Sandy held him back.

Sandy was the second to react by gasping in shock. “You really are harboring Red Son in your apartment, MK. But why?” He suddenly held a sympathetic look at the demon, while still holding the angered swine with little difficulty. “Did you have a falling out with your parents and had no choice but to come to you sworn enemy’s home because you had nowhere else to go?”

MK watched as Red Son bristled huffily. “If you must know, my parents love me very much.”

Mei let out a loud cough that MK thought sounded similar to, “unlikely” but he was probably just hearing things.

“You still haven’t explained yet what he’s doing here?” Tang asked MK, waiting patiently for an answer.

“It is because he caught me and brought me here on his own accord,” Red Son answered before MK had a chance to.

Everyone, minus Mei, gaped in shock at MK who could only smile and shrug defenselessly. Red Son, who was unaware of the expression the human male was making, walked down the stairs in a graceful fashion. “We have an understanding. An agreement if you will, that means I won’t be a hinderance to you all and Xiǎotiān. I will give you my aid as well.”

Pigsy had become limp in Sandy’s arms, allowing him to slip out the big blue man’s grip and gave Red Son a skeptical look. “Oh, yeah? You’re just instantly on our side now?”

“Xiǎotiān has my absolute loyalty,” the demon said, unwaveringly.

“So, what? Him kidnapping you means you’re now his slave and do whatever he tells you to? And what gave you the right to call him by his name?” the pig-man demanded.

MK felt himself sweat at how this conversation was going. “I told him he could call me that,” he stood in-between both the fire and pig demons, trying to keep them from fighting each other.

As soon as Pigsy and Red Son commenced their glare-off an alarm on every member of Team Monkie Kid’s phone went off.

“What is that?” Red Son asked MK.

“It’s the Demon Alert App (Long Family ™) Mei set up a while back, so we’d know when there’s a demon attacking the city,” the human answered.

“Why tell him that? Why don’t you just tell him all our secrets?” Pigsy said sarcastically.

“I’m more curious as to why you put (Long Family ™) parentheses?” Red Son asked after pointing it out.

“Because the Demon Alert App (Long Family ™) was funded by my family of course,” Mei answered with a ‘duh’ sounding tone MK recognized all too well.

Tang was more focused on Pigsy by giving him a firm look before adjusting his glasses. “Your questions don’t matter right now. What does is that we all get in your food truck and go save the city.”

“Yeah, the app says we got a Category 4 Demon attack,” Sandy while Mo meowed in agreement.

“Then why are we wasting our time here for?” MK asked as he summoned the Staff and moved it around in a swooping motion to look cool before stomping it on the floor. “Let’s go be heroes!”

“MK! I told you to stop damaging my floor with the Staff!” Pigsy shouted. “That’s coming out of your paycheck, again!”

“Oh, sorry, my bad,” MK said, smiling in embarrassment.

🔥🍜

Even with the new food truck being larger than the old one that exploded, it still felt a **little** bit tighter now there were seven passengers instead of six. The lower half of Sandy’s body was in the kitchen with Mo while his front was situated in the backseat. He shared it with MK and Mei while Pigsy was driving and Tang oversaw the Demon Finding App (Long Family ™) while sitting in the middle front seat next to Pigsy. Red Son of all people was in window seat while occasionally stealing short glances to the backseat.

“I guess now is a good time to prove if you are a good guy,” MK heard Pigsy say to the fire demon. The tone didn’t change from the disbelieving one he used earlier in the shop.

Through the rearview mirror MK could see Red Son giving his boss a very uninterested look. “In all honesty, I don’t much care for what the rest of you peasants think of me. If Xiǎotiān wants me to play nice, I will. For now.”

As that comment offended Pigsy (risking his already rising blood pressure) and Sandy tried to play mediator between the two demons MK felt a poke on his shoulder. He looked to meet Mei’s gaze and noticed her carefully putting her hand back on her lap. At least he knew who was responsible for touching him. Now all he needed to know was why?

“Hey, uh MK? I think I left my Dragon Blade in the very end of the truck? Can you help me go look for it?”

“Uh?” MK needed about ten seconds to process what Mei was asking before he understood what she really wanted. “Oh, yeah, I can totally help you with **that**.”

The show they put on didn’t really seem to be needed as the others were still caught up with their current activities. At least MK thought so. He didn’t notice that while he and Mei slipped away Red Son’s eyes were trailed on the two of them.

The two friends made it to the end of the truck without any issues, despite the mad driving Pigsy was exhibiting. Once they made it they both held onto something sturdy to keep themselves from falling.

“So, you and Red Son are on a first name basis, MK? Or should I say Xiǎotiān?” Mei asked with that fascinated eyebrow of hers again. The Staff wielding hero perceived that she was keeping her voice low to prevent the others from hearing them.

“I told you I was fine with him calling me that.” he reminded her.

“It’s just kinda weird hearing someone calling you that again,” Mei admitted.

“Yeah, I know, but it’s not like I need to hide my identity from my foster parents anymore,” MK said to his oldest friend. He wasn’t distressing when speaking with her about that part of his life.

Mei frowned in condolence. “I know, but are you sure Red Son isn’t trying to use you in some way?”

“Didn’t we already talk about this a week ago?” MK complained.

The girl with the dragon motorcycle narrowed her eyes in worry. “Please don’t tell me you’ve already become friends with him.”

MK shook his head. “No,” he almost yelled before catching himself. “No. I still trust him as far as I can throw him… but…”

“Here we go,” she said with an eyeroll.

The Monkie Kid threw her an irked look before he continued. “I think he’s really being serious about wanting to help me.”

“Or he could be playing the long game.” Mei inputted.

“How do we know otherwise?” MK brought up while shrugging one shoulder as the other still held on to a counter.

  
  
At the other side of the truck Mei held a conflicted look on her face. MK tilted his head in concern. Before either of them could comment they were jolted by the truck unexpectedly breaking.

“We made it!” Tang yelled over Pigsy and Red Son’s bickering.

The nineteen-year-old had to let his twenty-year-old friend off the hook for now after they climbed out the back end and entered what looked like a no-man’s-land from the fights against DBK.

“Oh boy, we haven’t faced a Category 4 demon in ages,” Sandy said as he grasped his crescent moon shaped spade.

“Not since… Pigsy was the last one that Python Empress?”

The pig-man shook his head and replied to Tang’s inquiry that she only counted as a Category 3 threat. The Killer Goldfish Demon was the last Category 4 level opponent they faced.

“Can someone please explain to me what all these categories are for?” Red Son asked while being the last one to get out of the truck.

MK decided to answer the fire demon’s question while he and the rest of Team Monkie Kid patrolled the area to find the malevolent demon they were about to face.

“Since not all demons that attack Megapolis are the same in size, strength and magic, Mei decided to work on a phone app to help warn the citizens of what type of demon we’re gonna face so they’ll know whether to evacuate an area or not. We’ve categorized every demon into four levels. One being the lowest and four being the highest one.”

“For example,” Mei said after pulling out her phone to show a page on the app of a giant DBK in the middle of his first fight with MK. “We categorized your mom and dad as a Category 4 threats after they laid waste to half of the city.”

“The Python Empress was 3, the combined forces of the Tiger, Elk and Antelope demons are 2 and after we faced the King of the Southern Hill, we collectively agreed to put him in the 1 category.” Tang added, listing off the names with perfect memory that always impressed MK.

“That king guy wasn’t all that strong, but he was pretty smart in using the old ‘divide and conquer’ technique by splitting us up,” Sandy said while his kitty cat nodded.

“Yeah, but he was defeated pretty easily after Mr. Tang kicked him in the butt when he wasn’t looking,” MK said, trying to hold back a snicker.

“So, what Category am I in?” Red Son asked with a smirk. He gazed at MK. “Surely am I in the same league as my parents?”

No one was willing to look the demon prince in the eye.

Red Son’s smirk decreased by a fraction. “Category 3?”

All of Team Monkie still kept their gazes averted.

“You didn’t really put me in the same class as the Elk, Tiger and Antelope, did you?”

MK rubbed the back of his head, not being able to take it anymore. “You’re a Category 1 Threat.”

Red Son appeared positively baffled. “What?!”

“It’s just you always kept losing to us every time we fought you. And you do have a good number of weaknesses stacked against you—”

“Like what?” the fire demon almost roared.

“Keep it down,” Pigsy ordered. “We don’t wanna ruin the element of surprise we’ve got goin’ on.”

“If it means anything, MK thinks the Gold and Silver Demons are only a Level 2 threat with their calabash.” Sandy said to the angry Red Son in an effort to calm him down.

  
  
“And what are they without it?” the creator of the Bull Clones asked. 

“0,” MK instantly answered.

Red Son concurred with the statement. “They used to be far more intimidating in the past. Though, most of that was thanks to their mother. She was the real brains behind the op—”

The fallen Sage King was interrupted when a loud scream came from the crumbling ground.

“That’s not DBK, is it?” the cargo ship owner asked as the earth began to shake.

“No,” Red Son said evenly while he pushed both hands up to keep himself steady. “I know my father’s yelling anywhere. That is definitely not him.”

MK, who decided to file the ‘Red Son being familiar with his dad’s yells’ away, asked, “Then who—?”

“MONKEY KING!”

A demon roughly the same height as the Demon Bull King’s magically enhanced form shot out from the rubble like a demented jack-in-the-box. A few notable things about his appearance were that he had on heavy black metal armor over a black silk robe, a large black golden helmet, and a great sash over the arm with ancient Chinese characters stitched on the front.

“It’s the Demon King of Confusion!” Tang announced while pointing at said demon.

_The first real big threat Monkey King ever faced,_ MK thought in realization before hardening his face in determination.

The red-eyed demon peered lazily at the human before smiling in a proud manner. “Oh, what gave me away? Am I that famous?” He stroked his short beard, looking very pleased.

“Well, he probably also read your name on the sash you’re wearing,” Red Son said wryly, pointing at said sash.

“That voice?” The King of Confusion ceased his actions before taking a closer look at his would-be opponents. He let out a short laugh after scrutinizing at the younger demon. “Is that the son of the Demon Bull King I hear? Red Boy?”

“I go by Red Son now—” the fire demon started saying before the other demon interrupted him with laughter.

“So, have you come here to see me kill Sun Wukong?”

“Are you blind? What makes you think that old fool is here?” Red Son gestured to the members of Team Monkie Kid to emphasized on the fact that there is no stone simian present.

  
  
“I trained for years to home in on his chi and I can feel it wafting right beside you. I’m assuming that cowardly primate has made himself invisible?”

“Nope that’s me,” MK said pointing to himself, unaware of the displeased stares his friends and prisoner were giving him.

The Demon King of Confusion (or as MK was starting to call in his head, DKC) lived up to his name by gaping comically at him. “You cannot be Sun Wukong… He has bigger ears than you.”

Right next to MK, Red Son was facepalming.

MK shrugged, having grown accustomed to people comparing him to Monkey King. “I don’t know what to tell you, guy.” He swung the Staff with his hand before forming a cool pose. “So, you ready to fight the successor of Sun Wukong, instead?”

DKC’s perplexed stare soon morphed into a smirk. “Perhaps, if killing you will draw out the **real** Monkey King. I have a score to settle with that ape.”

“Hate to burst your bubble, but you’re just gonna have to settle with me, my friends—and a fire demon who’s apparently with us for the foreseeable future.”

Red Son eyed the human. “Apparently?”

“Enough talk, let’s fight!” DKC shouted before lifting his sword and thrusted it down on the mortals.

🔥🍜

_“It was such a cool fight! Pigsy had his rake, Sandy with his spade, Mei had her family’s sword, and I used the Staff to fight DKC. I could barely concentrate on the fight at first because I still couldn’t believe that I was facing the first big threat you ever faced.”_

_“… I’m gonna come clean with you, Bud. I don’t remember that guy.”_

_“What? You seriously don’t remember the Demon King of Confusion?”_

_“Bud, do you know how many demons I faced over the centuries? A lot.”_

_“Yeah, but wasn’t he, like, the first serious opponent you ever faced? The guy who kidnapped most of your monkey subjects and planned to eat them after taking over Flower-Fruit Mountain while you were busy learning to become an immortal?”_

_“Eh, not ringing a bell. Anyway, how did the fight end? Obviously, you survived unless I’m speaking with a very convincing impersonator that even my all-seeing eyes are being deceived by.”_

_*Sarcastic chuckling* “Hah, so what happened next was that DKC took out a sack and shoved Pigsy, Tang and Sandy inside it. He tried to capture, Mei, Red Son and me but we were too fast.”_

_“Uh-huh, and then you came up with a way to defeat him, right?”_

_“Not before he said something.”_

_“What was it?”_

🔥🍜

“Geez, this guy is relentless,” Mei complained after having to dodge one of the havoc king’s fists from capturing her.

“Just how much stamina does this guy have?” MK wondered aloud. Next to him Red Son shot a blast of fire onto DKC’s toe, hoping it would distract the bigger demon, only for him to simply shove it into the dirt snuff out the flames.

Red Son gritted his teeth while glaring at DKC. He answered MK’s question with, “He’ll most likely still be full of energy long after you and Dragon Horse Girl and I tire out.”

“Her name is Mei,” MK said casually.

“I don’t care,” the young demon replied, a slight bitterness in his words.

Before MK could even arch an eyebrow at Red Son’s sudden aloofness the ground around the teenage magical martial artists shook. The Monkie Kid raised his head to see the DKC looking down on them.

“You are much more of a challenge to hit than Sun Wukong, little mortal.” DKC noted with a rather impressed tone.

“Thanks,” MK said, taking whatever compliments he could get.

“Don’t talk to him,” Red Son whispered in a hiss. “For all we know he might be attempting to throw us off in some way with a distract—”

“I would even go as far as to say you are more handsome than he was,” the Demon King of Confusion loudly spoke over the demon prince’s muttering.

“What?” was the response from all three youths. All varying degrees of bemusement, appalment and pure, unadulterated fury.

The DKC didn’t seem to notice the shocked expressions the trio had and instead sent a sultry wink at MK. “I might be willing to let your tasty-looking friends go if you agree to spend some time alone with me.”

🔥🍜

_“That dumb demon! He thinks you’re better looking than **me**?! My first title was literally Handsome Monkey King! That so-called king wouldn’t know what attractiveness was if it bit him in the—”_

_*Cough * “Are you going to let me continue or not?”_

_*Incomprehensible swearing ensuing * “Fine.” *More incomprehensible swearing*_

🔥🍜

“What?” this time it was only MK who asked that while the dragon girl on his right and the fire demon on his left were both slightly livid and developed glowing green and red auras respectfully.

“Uh,” MK had only one second to react before both turned into bright blurs and jumped at the demon king. The two magically powered youths had leaped so high that they were literally in DKC face. Mei used her sword to slash at the giant and Red Son using his fire to hit him.

MK was momentarily stunned by the violent displays the two were making before shrugging it off as a non-mortal thing. He then realized that the fire demon and his friend had given him the chance to take down DKC while he was distracted. The Staff followed MK’s mental command of growing very large in height. He pogoed up into the air, used a few clones to direct him to the right angle before reach the back of DKC’s head. Without any hesitation MK swung the Staff, hitting the Demon King squarely on the middle of his skull. As soon as the Monkie hit the giant demon he quickly fell into unconsciousness, safely into the bay where no more homes and office buildings were destroyed.

MK used the Staff like a fireman’s pole and safely slid down while it shrunk to its normal default height.

“Ha! How’s that for a Level 1 Ranked Demon?” Red Son said to MK and Mei right as the former reached the ground.

“Pretty good,” Mei said without any reluctance in her tone. “You know, if you keep this up, I might just believe that you’re being sincere about wanting to help out MK.”

“Speaking of helping, is there a chance you guys can assist me with getting Pigsy, Mr. Tang, Sandy, Mo and the civilians that I’m pretty sure DKC captured?” MK asked as he motioned to the giant navy-blue sack that the aforementioned demon dropped after he was defeated.

Mei wasted no time in assisting MK and they were successful in freeing all the prisoners. The trapped citizens and their friends thanked the two young adults profusely for saving them.

“It wasn’t just us,” MK corrected, pointing over to the rubble Red Son stood. “He helped too.”

“He did?” Tang asked, raising an eyebrow before tilting his head.

MK nodded with a grin. “Yep.”

It was now Pigsy’s turn to look baffled after he pushed some civilians away. Looking at the fire demon in shock. “You saved us? Why?”

Red Son, with poise, jumped off the rocks at first (only to stumble over on a few small ones) before he stood before the noodle shop owner. “Like I said prior to our arrival, I care little for you…” the harsh look on Red Son’s features softened by a centimeter. “But you do all matter to Xiǎotiān and if anything were to happen to you all it would surely devastate him.”

As the others stood there taking in the unexpected news MK felt a familiar poke and noticed Mei. She asked him to stand further away from their group to talk in private.

“I wanted to say this earlier, but we were interrupted.”

“What is it?” MK asked the Dragon Girl.

“You asked me the night we took Red Son into your place if I was going to send that letter, we made for DBK and Princess Iron Fan.”

“Yeah, I remember that. What’s that got to do with anything?”

Mei pursed her lips. “It’s been almost a whole week since then and they haven’t replied.”

MK gaped in confusion. “What? Why haven’t they?”

The girl in pigtails shrugged shakily. “I don’t know.”

Mei left MK there to give him space for a few minutes. The Monkie Kid was at a loss. It was obvious that their plan wasn’t going according to… plan.

_Just what is going on?_ MK thought as his eyes trailed back to Red Son who was in the middle of being given a large bearhug by Sandy. MK was too confused to find that scene funny.

🔥🍜

“Hey, have you seen my sleeping bag?” MK asked after he and Red Son returned to his loft.

The fire demon held a very uncertain look that other people, but MK, would tell he was hiding back a grin. “Oh, I don’t know. Somehow it must’ve disappeared. For good.” Red Son shrugged dramatically. “Oh, well. I suppose this means you’ll have to sleep in the bed with me now.”

MK shook his head. “No, I can just grab an extra pillow and blanket from my closet. I’m pretty sure it’s clean eno—”

“Am I ugly?”

The human paused his steps, turning his head to look at the demon. “What?” he asked him.

“Ugly,” Red Son repeated, sounding fractious while a frown formed on his face. “I’m asking you if that is the reason why you keep keeping me at arm’s length from you?”

MK blinked in confusion before shaking his head. “What? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“For the past week you have been insisting on sleeping on the floor like some mangy dog. You purposely ignore all my offers to come sleep in this bed and yet you keep refusing. Is the very idea of sharing a small space with me worse than lying on a hardwood floor?”

MK was at a loss for words over Red Son’s mini outburst. It was never his intention to offend the demon or hurt his feelings, but he ended up doing both. The fire demon was trying to be a good person now and was probably feeling very self-conscious over MK’s repeated rebuffs, not knowing why the human was keeping his distance.

“I drool,” MK said. His words caught the demon prince’s attention who had covered his face with his hands a moment prior. The Monkie Kid felt nervous suddenly but continued to press on. “I snore, too. Loudly, in fact. I also like splaying myself over the bed when I’m deep in sleep and don’t even get me started out my snoring. I sound like a leaf blower when I—”

“I don’t care about any of that,” Red Son cut off, MK, much to his surprise. The redhead gave MK a sharp regard and said, “It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you’re feeling comfortable, too. Every night I hear you tossing and turning on the floor, visibly aching from head to toe. I am doing you a favor by giving half of your bed back.”

“But—” MK tried to protest but Red Son raised a hand to silence him.

“If you won’t sleep on the bed then neither will I.”

MK opened his mouth to disagree with Red Son but realized that he had nothing to say to counter the fire demon. He ended up closing his mouth before opening it again to sigh in defeat.

“Okay, fine, if that’s what you want.” MK waited until Red Son was on the far-right side of the bed before he laid down over on the left. There was less than an inch of space between the two, but MK could still feel the fire demon’s energy radiating from him.

“But just so you know, I’ll be on my very best behavior. I won’t, you know, do anything, while we’re sleeping here.” He assumed that his promise would help make the situation better and brighten the fire demon’s mood, to his confoundment the older male seemed to frown after he spoke. A part of MK wondered what caused Red Son to react negatively, but he was getting too tired to think and wanted to crash after a long day.

“You don’t think your Dragon Horse girlfriend is perturbed at me staying here with you?” he heard Red Son ask right as he was starting to close his eyes.

MK recalled all the text messages and Mei’s reveal of the Bull couple not replying to their messages before settling with a shrug. “I don’t think so. Not anymore at least.”

“What? Did spending time with her alone at the other end of the truck make her feel better?”

MK lifted he head to look over at the son of DBK. “You noticed that?”

Red Son’s eyes glimmered into a dark shade of scarlet. “You announced it to everyone within hearing range.”

“Oh, right.”

“I mean, if you wanted to get a good luck kiss from her, you didn’t have to make it so obvious.”

MK gaped at the visually green-eyed fire demon before he recoiled in disgust.

Red Son arched an eyebrow, giving the Monkie Kid a bewildered look. “You don’t have feelings for her?”

“First the Gold and Silver Demon Twins and now you? Why does everybody-Gah,” MK groaned, covering his face with one hand.

“I see,” the fire demon said quietly before asking, “Then you are…. Well—”

“Gay?”

MK watched Red Son’s face darkened before meekly nodding his head. The human couldn’t help but snicker. He stopped after the demon started to glare at him.

“Yeah, I am. Technically speaking, I’m Gray-Ace.” MK couldn’t stop the wince he made after admitting that truth. 

Much to his surprise, Red Son didn’t react in a negative way at all. He just nodded and accepted MK’s answer.

“You still didn’t answer my question, you know.” Red Son said to MK a few minutes later.

  
  
“Which one?”

“The one where I asked if you thought I was ugly.” Red Son gave him an expectant look. “Well?”

“…I don’t,” MK quietly admitted. “I never did.”

“…Oh… I also have another question. It’s bit of an unrelated topic.”

“What is it?”

“You’re able to turn just about any nearby material into that dorky mech suit, right?”

“Yeah, but you’re just saying that because you’re jealous at how cool it is,” MK maturely refuted.

Red Son sighed. “Fine, whatever. Anyway, does it require a lot of energy to create that thing?”

MK considered the fire demon’s words before shaking his head. “No.”

The demon prince then gave him a flat look. “Then why didn’t you summon it while Drag—Mei and I were fighting the Demon King of Confusion? Or better yet, before your friends were captured?”

The noodle delivery boy blinked as he processed the son of DBK’s words. He opened his mouth at first before closing it again after he realized that he didn’t have a good enough answer. That was all the fire demon needed to know before he started to laugh uproariously, calling him a silly little fool in-between his breaths. MK felt his cheeks heat up more ways than one. In retaliation he lifted his head and used his newly freed pillow to whack the fire demon with it. Red Son reacted swiftly by taking his own pillow and throwing it MK. The successor of Sun Wukong smirked and simply used the newly acquired ammo and fought back in earnest. The two dorky warriors continued their pillow fight of the ages until Pigsy shouted at them from downstairs to quit it or else he’ll make them.

The atmosphere inside MK’s loft was vastly different than it was one week ago. The two young males both slept soundly the night, the first time for them both in days. Both woke up the next day feeling refreshed. MK felt so good that he had forgotten that he somehow laced his hand with Red Son’s while they were asleep.

It probably meant nothing. Right?

**End of Chapter II**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look what I made myself do! I had to go and write a 36 pg. chapter. Curse me and my irrational desire to write in too many funny scenes and not knowing when to quit!
> 
> True story, but in the Journey To The West novel (translated by Anthony Yu) the book compares the width of Monkey King’s staff to the width of a rice bowl, which is safe to assume to be on the small size so his fingers could wrap around it. At least we can only assume.
> 
> MK’s parents (the ones I made up) are Caihong, which means rainbow and Yun is cloud. I just thought it would be cute if their names were related to one another. 
> 
> Category 4 is meant to be a reference to the Kaiju Category system from ‘Pacific Rim’, one of the coolest non-Anime Anime movies ever. It’s a real shame a sequel was NEVER made for the movie. A real shame indeed. 
> 
> P.S., I realized that I couldn’t do this all in three chapters so now I’ve expanded it to four. I’m sure you all won’t be mad if the story has more words in it, right? XD


	3. What Did He Say?!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MK was NOT expecting ‘that’ when Red Son said he had something he wanted to show him.

_“By the Buddha, kid. You’re gonna give me a toothache from all that sweetness you’re dishing out.”_

_“I can’t help it. That’s how it happened.”_

_“Were there any more moments like that?”_

_“Actually, right as the sun rose up a week later, we all got a notification from the Demon Alert App (Long Family ™). Some demon with the power to read minds had a magic ball that allowed him to wish up whatever illusions he wanted to use.”_

_“Magic…wish…ball—HE HAD A CHINTAMANI STONE IN HIS POSSESSION? Are you serious?! Those are almost impossible to find now. *Envious scoff* “Even I never got my paws on one.”_

_“We later learned that he got it from his master, a_ _Bodhisattva and that the demon was really hir pet lizard that turned into a demon after overhearing them pray to the gods 326 times.”_

_“Ah, that old story? Haven’t heard that before. So, what did this mind-reading demon do to you guys? Figure out how to move one step ahead of you and dodge all of your attacks?”_

_“No…”_

_“What’s with the face?”_

_“Nothing!”_

_“Kid~”_

_*Deep sigh* “The demon found out what our fears were and used the Chintamani stone to create them in real life, forcing us to face them. Sandy saw himself trapped in a burning battlefield while Pigsy was forced to see a fake me, Mei and Mr. Tang dying before his eyes. Mei saw her parents saying that they were lying and were never proud of her in the first place and demanded that she gave up the Dragon Blade. Tang said he saw himself getting banned from Pigsy’s shop and Pigsy telling him he never liked him. Red’s was down in an alley and he didn’t tell me until we were alone about what he saw.”_

_“And you?”_

_“….”_

_“Kid…. MK. Tell me what you saw… please?”_

_*Sounds of emotional monkie boy being hugged by his third surrogate father-figure*_

🔥🍜

The battle eventually ended after Red Son was the first to snap out of his illusion and rescued MK from his. The two teamed up to overwhelm the mind-reading lizard with MK grabbing the jewel and made the wish to summon who the real owner of the ball is. The grateful Bodhisattva was more than understanding with helping Team Monkie restore everything it was before the lizard wrecked it. The Bodhisattva then took their pet lizard back and gave the heroes a blessing for their good deed. After everything was back to normal Pigsy decided to keep the store closed for once after seeing how emotionally drained everyone still was.

“I must say, even though you are a fine successor to that old fool, your offensive fighting style could still use a little more work.” Red Son critiqued as MK and him walked through one of the city’s parks.

“Mmm-hmm,” MK hummed, looking at the ground.

“I hate admitting it myself, but my defense is seriously lacking in some places. Perhaps if we have free time we could—okay, what’s got you all mopey and dopey?”

“Wh-huh?” the Monkie Kid had been busy kicking a pebble with his scuffed sneakers. He noticed Red Son giving him an annoyed look.

“What’s got you acting like this, Xiǎotiān? Don’t you normally talk a storm after each battle?”

MK shrugged, his hands inside his coat pockets. A moment later a hand grabbed his wrist.

“What?” the dark-haired human was startled by Red Son taking his arm. “Where are you—”

“I know a place nearby that’s normally secluded during this time of day,” the fire demon answered, his eyes facing forward before he turned his head to look at MK for a second. “You look like you need to vent.”

MK wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He never had anyone read him so well besides Mei. And he also wasn’t sure if the idea to express his feelings was at all necessary. He was used to keeping his emotions bottled up.

Red Son took them to a garden concealed by tall bushy trees that had a fountain with big goldfish swimming around just below the surface. The demon led him to a stone bench near the fountain and made the human sit there.

“Go on,” the demon goaded. When MK raised an eyebrow Red Son sighed, “Xiǎotiān, please, just say aloud what’s troubling you. You can’t just keep your emotions sealed away. Believe me… I know.”

MK sighed, “I don’t really think I should—”

“In my vision I relived the moment of my father calling me a failure.”

The dark-haired human gave the demon a confused look. “What?”

Red Son frowned and combed his ponytail with a hand. “It happened when he was still under the influence of the White Bone Demon. It was the night you and your friends came to our lair to fight. I volunteered to go after you and Mei to please my father when he started to laugh. He was not laughing in agreement as I initially thought, but-but at **me**. He called me a failure, that I was nothing but a disappointment for losing to you repeatedly.”

MK gaped as he heard the young demon’s words. Even though they were enemies back then the Monkie Kid was sure he would have still felt sympathetic over seeing and hearing that happen to Red Son if he had witnessed it. Parents are supposed to build up their children, not bring them down.

“He then tried to hit me and just seeing him do it made me freeze. Thankfully mother stepped in time. Though that wasn’t the case in the vision.”

“How did you snap out of it?” MK asked. “The only reason I broke free from mine was because you found me and helped me wake up.”

“I heard you crying.”

“Oh,” the human said. His face became red from shame. “What happened with DBK? You know, after I broke the cannisters?” MK had always wondered where the Bull Family went off to after they disappeared.

“For the first time I can remember, he apologized for saying those things to me, once mother took us someplace safe to avoid getting crushed from the fallen debris. I of course instantly understood he didn’t mean any of it because of the White Bone Demon’s sway on him… But it still hurt.”

_Well, how am I supposed to keep quiet after hearing that?_ he thought with a sigh moving his knees until they were under his chin. “Does it have something to do with your parents?” Red Son asked. “From what I gathered before I was under the assumption that you have a functional relationship with them.”

“I did… back when they were still alive.” Right above MK’s eye he could see the older male wince. “Oh.”

“I was 12 when they died. It was raining, and they were out for a drive. I was with a babysitter when the police came and told us what had happened. I didn’t have any surviving relatives, so I was sent to live with a foster family. It was kinda nice for the first two years until I came out when I was 14. They-they didn’t take it too well.”

“What did they do to you?” the fire demon asked in a murderously low tone.

“N-nothing,” MK promised. “I mean, they didn’t hit me or anything, but they did force me to make a choice. Either get out or go get counseling so I could be ‘cured.’”

“Where do they live,” Red Son questioned. His tone hadn’t changed, and MK recognized it as the same one Mei, Pigsy and Monkey King used when he told them the story.

“Please don’t do anything rash,” MK requested. “They left the city a couple years ago and nobody has heard from them.”

“They made you leave their home. While you were freakin’ 14-years-old!” Red Son’s hair turned into flames after putting emphasis on the last three words.

“I met people who were nice enough to take me in when I had nowhere else to go,” the young human said, waving his arms up in down. He then put his hands on Red Son’s shoulders in an effort to get him to calm down. “After I turned sixteen, I applied for a job at Pigsy’s and he gave me the loft upstairs after I asked if I could stay there. And I’ve been there ever since, surrounded by people who care about me and don’t think it’s strange or wrong that I’m the way that I am. Anyway, even if I did see my foster parents again, I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to them.”

Strangely enough MK’s words seemed to get through to the demon as his fire and temper went down. Red Son sighed before giving the headband wearing human a tired look.

“Has anyone ever told you you’re too kind for your own good?” Before MK could answer him the fire demon chuckled. “Though, I suppose that’s one of the things I admire about you.”

“You admire me?” MK could count with one hand the number of times anyone had ever said that to him.

Red Son bit his lower lip before nodding. “Next to the Monkey King, you are by far the most formidable threat my family ever faced. Aside from that White Bone Spirit, of course.”

The Monkie Kid nodded rapidly. “Oh yeah, she was pretty terrifying.” The fire demon let out a short laugh before looking directly at MK. “Was the vision that lizard showed you of your foster parents?”

“No,” MK shook his head. A pit the size of a stone fruit grew in his stomach. “It was of my actual parents. I imagined them in the place as my foster parents, disowning me instead, saying they would never accept me.”

“That would never happen,” Red Son said at once. He grabbed MK’s hands (that had been still on his shoulders) and held them. The demon looked deeply into the young mortal’s eyes and added, “Because no one in their right mind could ever hate you.”

MK was sure the reason his eyes were tearing up had to do with sudden allergies to pollen. Yep. That had to be it. MK then freed one of his hands so he could wipe the water away and did his best to clear his throat. “Th-thank you.”

The son of Demon Bull King smiled at him. “Anytime, Xiǎotiān. Are you ready to go back home now?”

Another happy feeling wormed its way into MK’s chest from the way Red Son said ‘home.’ “Yeah.”

The two left the semi-enclosed garden and headed out onto the pathway the led to the park’s exit. Both males agreed they would hail a cab since the talk made them too mentally exhausted to do some cool parkour on the rooftops they had been starting to use to get around the city.

“Hey, um,” the young man paused until Red Son turned his full attention on him again. “Since you call me Xiǎotiān would it be alright if I just called you Red for now on?”

“I would like that, Xiǎotiān,” the fire demon said, smiling at him.

Somehow the way that smile was directed towards MK made his insides become warmer than before. “Okay… Red.”

“And did you think about that offer I made earlier? The one about the training?” the newly nicknamed Red asked.

“Oh, sure,” MK said excitedly. “That would be awesome!”

He hadn’t felt this giddy in a while. Red was being so helpful and nice there had to be something MK could do in order to thank him. Perhaps he could do the cooking for a whole week? But that didn’t sound like it would be enough. MK could draw a handmade thank you card, but he usually did those for birthdays. No, he needed something that Red would really appreciate. His mind (for whatever reason) trailed back to the past few mornings he and the fire demon woke up. MK noticed that despite Red’s insistence of being fine with sharing a small bed with the human he still looked irked from MK stretching his arms and legs while the two slept.

A lightbulb went on in MK’s idea as he picked his phone and discreetly went on to _Taobao_ to find what he was looking for.

🔥🍜

“Okay, just keep your eyes closed and~ now you can open them,” MK announced, exuberantly.

When Red removed his hands from his eyes MK moved out from his view so he would see what he had bought.

“Is that a new mattress and bedframe?”

“It’s a queen-size,” he announced in excitement before pushing Red forward to look at the bed closer. “It’s got these nice springs that last way longer than most other beds, with this soft-thin memory foam pad on top so it’ll be like sleeping on a cloud. Or at least I think I would. Monkey King still hasn’t let me ride on a real one yet.”

“You bought a bed?” Red asked MK.

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“You bought a bed.”

“You just said that.”

“You bought a—” Red seemed to have caught himself that time and shook his head before looking at MK. “Why did you buy a bed?”

“Because you were uncomfortable with the old one,” the Monkie Kid answered. “And, you know, I wanted to say thanks for how helpful you’ve been the past couple weeks so that’s why I got this. And I think it’s pretty nice.”

“It almost covers half of the room, Xiǎotiān,” Red shook his head again, this time out of amusement.

MK shrugged. “I mean… yeah, but I figured its worth it. I usually lay around on my bed all the time anyway.”

Red snorted before his brows furrowed. “Where did you get the money to purchase this?”

“I,” the human hesitated before truthfully answered, “used the money I was saving for the new _Mech Monkey XV_ on the console. The one I wanted to buy was a special edition that came with a unique poster drawn by the head concept artist. The game would’ve came with all this cool behind-the-scenes information, along with special skins that are normally DLCs you need to pay extra to get… But it’s no big deal. I’ll just wait until the normal game comes out.”

After MK finished gushing about the game (and pretending he wasn’t dying inside) he yawned before suggesting they should get ready for bed since it was around 10:30. If MK hadn’t close his eyes right away after lying on the soft mattress he would’ve noticed the thoughtful look Red directed towards his sleeping form.

🔥🍜

_“Aww, well ain’t that cute? But you know what isn’t cute? That fact that you agreed to two-time me on your training. Again!”_

_“It wasn’t like that, I swear! We were just each other’s sparring buddies.”_

_“Ha! Like I haven’t heard **that** one before. Was it a one-time thing, or did you do it more than once?... Well?”_

_“… We sparred together two times a week…”_

_*Gasp!* “And I thought I knew you.”_

_“I was helping him, too! It was a mutual understanding.”_

_“That’s a first considering what was going on with everything else in your lives… So, what happened next?”_

_“Well…”_

_“This oughtta be good, then.”_

🔥🍜

One week later, MK heard from Pigsy that he had gotten a package with his named printed right above the store’s address. The young man curiously took the box before asking if his boss got him something since, he didn’t remember ordering anything. To his surprise the 19-year-old found a limited-edition Monkey Mech XV game with all the special accessories and poster he had described. But what shocked MK the most was seeing something special written on both the poster and game cover.

“RED!” MK rushed to the loft, nearly tripping on the bed that now covered part of the room.

The fire demon barely said MK’s name (“Xiǎotiān—?”) before he started yelling excitedly about the gift he got from the package. He went into detail about how the head game designer and the VA for his favorite character, Monkey Mech King (naturally), signed his new poster and game cover respectfully.

“The designer even said he saw my artwork and complimented it! He also said that I might have a future as a concept artist someday.” The Monkie Kid beamed happily before his lips suddenly formed a frown. “But what I don’t understand is how did he know I liked to draw or saw any of my work? How did the company that makes the game know I wanted this?”

Before Red had a chance to get a word in a new idea came to his mind. “Do you think that the Bodhisattva did this? Was this part of their blessing or—”

“For the love of, Xiǎotiān, **I’m** the one who bought you the game.”

MK did a doubletake and stared at Red. “What?” he asked.

Red rolled his eyes. “It was me.” He pressed a hand over his chest. “I sent a letter to the game developer company, told them how much of a fan you are and even sent a digital file of your fanart of the game so they would know how much it would mean to you if you got a Limited Edition. The VA was just an added bonus because he’s apparently friends with the head designer.”

“You got me this?” MK asked, dumbfounded while pointing at the game.

“As a thank you for the bed. I found it unfair that you spent your hard-earn cash on something like a piece of furniture for me,” the fire demon said, though he had a soft smile as he spoke.

“But how were you able to even get this?”

“I’m rich, Xiǎotiān,” Red answered in a dry tone. “I could purchase a penthouse with a ten-year warranty and still have plenty left over to live comfortably for the next three centuries.” Despite his voice the demon still had that same smile before he leaned towards MK and his eyes were half-lidded.

MK felt his eyes getting all teary-eyed before he did something, he never did with the demon prince before. He glomped him with all his might.

“Thank you so much!” MK said, gratefully. He pulled away to show the bright smile he had to Red. “You’re the best!”

“Y-you’re very welcome, Xiǎotiān,” Red said with a flushed but frustrated looking face that MK couldn’t really see.

“I’m gonna put the game in,” he said once the young man removed himself from Red. MK rushed over to his game console to put the disc in, though not before looking back at the demon and asking, “You wanna come and play with me?”

“Don’t you usually play your games with Mei?” Red pointed out.

“Yeah, but since you go it for me it’s only fair that you play with me first.”

Red, who seemed a bit subdued a moment ago brightened and nodded. “Okay.”

“So~ just to be clear, you’re not a raging type of gamer are you?” MK asked the fire demon as they waited for the game to load.

“Just because I have a temper you automatically assume that I would melt your game console or throw the television through your window?” Red asked, arching an eyebrow.

“….”

“I… Might’ve done that one time.”

“We’ll start on easy mode.” MK announced.

“Let’s do easy mode.” the demon prince concurred.

The rest of MK’s Sunday was dedicated to him playing with Red and happily discovering that they were both on equal footing, so the fights never felt one-sided. He didn’t even mind at how close their shoulders touched.

🔥🍜

Weeks passed by with little to no fanfare. Nights of staying up slightly later playing games, streaming shows on Brickflix or just telling stories about each other’s lives was what MK did with the fire demon. The moments in between fighting evil demons and noodle deliveries were spent with Red pointing different locations in Megapolis and explaining what they looked like centuries ago to the interested, MK and Tang. There were times when MK would either watch or join Mei and Red in friendly, but competitive, races with their respected vehicles. Other moments were spent on teaching Red how to help re-paint Sandy’s boat, introducing Anhui-inspired recipes to Pigsy (thus gaining more diverse customers to the shop, much to the pig-man’s delight), and the two young humans challenging the fire demon in arcade games.

There were times when MK argued with Red. Thankfully they weren’t as heated as the first one they had, but they still bickered on various subjects. Most notably when the fire demon insisted that they should move out of Pigsy’s flat and into a bigger apartment that would actually allow them more space. Red would say it wouldn’t be a problem with his money, but MK didn’t want to feel indebted to the Demon Prince. Each argument would with the two boys grumbling before the instigator would eventually come around and apologize. Despite that, the two still had a lot more ups than downs with MK enjoying every minute of it. But the thing that MK enjoyed the most was when Red taught him to fight more offensively. It wasn’t the training that garnered MK’s interest, but when they would race each other by jumping across roofs, teasing each other with wild footwork and daring leaps. One night ended with them walking home after realizing there was too much water on the roofs from all the rain that showed up that particular night, making it unsafe for the mortal… and also because Red didn’t like getting wet when it was unnecessary.

The wind didn’t pick up, but the temperature did drop several degrees colder than MK was used to. Just was he was starting to wrap his arms around himself a much warmer arm draped itself over his shoulders.

“While the whole concept of a lower body temp causing you to catch a cold is just a dumb human myth there is still a slight chance of getting hypothermia,” Red said as a matter of fact, though MK could see the edges of his pointy ears going pink and the tips of his hair smoking, showing how embarrassed he was.

MK laughed, unconsciously nudging his head against the demon. “Whatever you say, Red.”

As the weeks turned into 2 and a half months it seemed like nothing could change for MK. With his friends and Red by his side the Monkie Kid felt like nothing would throw him off.

🔥🍜

_“Were you just describing a montage?”_

_“What?”_

_“You know? A montage? It’s a series of—”_

_*Clears throat* “I’m sorry for interrupting Monkey King, but I wanted to let you know that I do know what a montage is. My what was for why you were calling it that?”_

_“Well, you only just described what happened through a series of events that happened through the passing months with no dialogue. To me that’s what a montage is.”_

_*Sigh* “Okay, fine. Whatever, it was a montage. I just wanted to let you know the footnote version of what happened during the three months before **it** happened.” _

_“Ooooh, are we getting to something good?”_

_“More like the reason why I came here to see you.”_

_“Oh yeah, I kinda forgot why you came here. That was like… 3 hours ago. Boy, a lot of time sure passed even though it feels more like weeks.”_

_“Do you want me to tell you the rest of the story?”_

_“Okay, okay. Go on, Kid.”_

_“Okay… so it was exactly three months since Red moved into my home when—”_

🔥🍜

“Good morning.” MK heard Red greet him after waking up one Sunday.

“Hi,” the Monkie Kid replied while he did a couple stretches. MK smiled after inhaling a small scent of that morning’s breakfast. When he tilted his head over to the stove, he noticed that Red had made all the younger male’s favorites.

“Wow, you even made me flour tea?” MK gaped at the perfect looking millet porridge that Red was currently sprinkling sesame seeds on top.

“I wanted to make you something special,” the fire demon answered. His tone was soft, but MK was too busy looking at all the food to notice that or his eyes turning green again.

“Is there any reason for this?” MK asked after he offered to help bring the food over to their usual spot on the bed. “It’s not my birthday.” He knew it wasn’t until next month.

Red shook his head. “No.”

MK frowned in thought. “It’s not a national holiday, is it?”

“No.”

“It’s not…” the Monkey King fanboy became a little anxious. “Your birthday, is it?”

“Why would I make your favorites if it was the anniversary of my date of birth?” Red asked, giving MK an amused stare.

MK flushed, scratching his nape after feeling a bit foolish. “I dunno, ‘cause I’ve got great taste in food?” He blushed even harder after Red began to laugh.

“No, it’s not…” Red had to recompose himself before continuing. “There is no special date happening now. I just wanted to give you this before I gave you something else.”

The human sighed. “I told you, Red. You don’t have to keep gifting me things for buying the bed. The game you gave me was more than enough.”

Red shook his head. “This won’t have anything to do with the bed.”

MK raised a brow but said nothing as the fire demon started to serve them breakfast. Aside from some unimportant small talk nothing else was said about Red’s other surprise. Instead, MK stewed over what the demon was planning to do in his head. What was it going to be?

When breakfast finally ended Red asked MK to stay on the bed while he left to go the closet to get his surprise. Ever since Red started to officially live with him, he split up his dresser and the closet space so there would be room for whatever Red wanted to put inside. Clearly, he had already began to put the closet to use as the fire demon picked up a small white box from inside and held it was great care as he returned to the bed. MK tilted his head as he examined the square-shaped package before Red opened the lid. The Monkie Kid gasped at what he saw.

Inside the box was a large chuff bracelet made from pure gold and an uncut red ruby in the center. MK was so memorized at the intricate carvings and indents made onto the metal that he barely heard what Red said to him.

“Sorry, what?” the successor to Wukong asked in confusion.

Red frowned before he cleared his throat and repeated, “I am presenting you with my official betrothal gift.”

MK blinked as his mouth became dry. “B-betrothal gift?”

The fire demon’s face flushed, matching both his hair and the bright jewel on the bracelet and explained, “I had intended to give this to you much sooner, but I had to add a few changes after you brought me here.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I just said I—” MK yelped before shushing him. “No, I mean why did you get me this?”

“I didn’t get this for you, I made it,” the son of the Bull King said, his tone beginning to be on the verge of frustration.

MK groaned before shaking his head and saying, “It doesn’t matter. What I’m trying to ask you is why did you give me a betrothal gift? I mean, we aren’t even dating, why would you propose to me?”

“Propose to you?” Red gave him an incredulous stare. “You’re the one who proposed first! We’re practically married, Xiǎotiān!”

“I—what?” MK discovered that he had lost the capacity to speak in full sentences all of a sudden.

“Well, I mean we aren’t married, yet. For some reason you have yet to tell me when you are ready to consummate our marriage.” The fire demon heaved a heavily repressed sounding sigh before giving MK a tired look.

“C-consummate?!”

“Why do you sound so shocked?” the fire demon asked. “You knew this was what we were doing since you brought me here, right?” When MK didn’t say anything in agreement Red gave the human a concerned look. “Right?”

MK was starting to think that maybe he and Red weren’t on the same page as he originally thought and realized that something got mistranslated or miscommunicated along the way. He then concluded that he needed to go find an expert on all things demon related.

But because he knew Tang was busy with his part-time job at his grandparents’ bookstore the Monkie Kid had to settle with a much more embarrassing choice.

“Listen,” MK said, not really looking at Red in the eye while he talked. “I’m—um, I’m going to go—uh, do this one thing real quick, but I promise I’ll be coming back once I do the thing. OkaysoI’llseeyoulaterbye!” he said the last part in a rush before heading out of the flat, disregarding Red shouting out his name or the surprised looks from passerby’s on the street.

“WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!” MK shouted at the top of his lungs before Staff-vaulting across the bay and landing clumsily into Flower-Fruit Mountain. He then started shouting his master’s name while running frantically, not caring about all the grass and dirt stains on his pants and shoes. He rushed through the waterfall before it could open all the way and searched wildly for the Monkey King. He was starting to worry that his mentor had vanished to some far-off exotic location before he heard a familiar voice say,

“What’s wrong?”

**End of Chapter III**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taobao is the real name of a e-market site from China that works similar to Amazon but delivers its products in a much faster rate. Instead of days for a person to wait for a package, imagine hours to minutes. I’m not exaggerating.
> 
> Also, Red was lying. He wasn’t over what his possessed father said to him.


	4. We Were Accidentally In Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now it’s time for The Talk and another later with MK and Red Son, which leads to the inevitable conclusion to the story.

Thanks to the quote end quote television room being inside the wooden part of the stone palace there wasn’t any way for the two people inside to become distracted by the noises from outside. Instead, MK and Wukong kept their focus on each other as the Monkie Kid told his story. Once he was done there was nothing but silence.

“So, that’s kinda where the story ends,” the human finished awkwardly before giving a halfhearted shrug.

The Monkey King frowned as he stared at his pupil. MK was beginning to feel unnerved until the former spoke. “Do you have any idea why Red Son thought the two of you were married?”

MK shook his head in response. “I don’t get it. We weren’t even going out on dates… Unless he thought traveling around the city and fighting demons is like dating someone.”

Sun Wukong let out one of those tired sighs the human was used to hearing before shaking his own head. “No, Kid. The reason why he thought you and he were engaged started all the way back on the day you kidnapped him. You said you read every version of my story, right? Don’t you remember all the little adventures my friends and I went through where we usually saved someone from getting roped into a forced marriage?”

The kid racked his brain for a second and recalled the dozens of stories where a human captured by a demon would tell the Monkey King and his fellow monks that the reason, they were kidnapped was so they could become a bride or groom. MK’s face flushed after his mind created the image of him being a lusty demon taking a tearful Red Son from his parents. He quickly shook that suggestive thought from his mind before it went further.

“But I thought marriages were only exclusive to demons kidnapping humans and making them their mates?” he asked incredulously.

The Stone Monkey shook his head, again. “Nope. Demon customs are progressive enough to include humans in allowing them a fair shake with bringing home a bride… or groom in your case.” He added with a slight smirk. “Haven’t you read those stories where men brought home seals, cranes and fox ladies as their wives? Looks like you did the same thing there. I always knew you had it in you, kiddo.” The Monkey King displayed a cheeky grin at his protege.

MK could do nothing but groan in response. “That wasn’t what I was planning at all. I just wanted to get the Bull Family and or Red to stop their attacks. That’s all.”

“Well, look at it this way, you technically did get them to stop.” When the noodle delivery boy sighed the immortal simian frowned and asked, “What’s the problem?”

“The problem is that Red thinks we’re in love just because I did something that’s technically illegal.” MK bemoaned. “I mean doesn’t this mean he has Stockholm Syndrome or something?”

“Okay, look, demon courtship rituals are a whole lot different to human ones,” the gold-eyed Sage further explained. “It doesn’t matter what species the kidnapper or the ‘kidnappee’ is in demon culture, the person taken has to marry the person who took them if they find their partner to be an ideal match or are too terrified to run away and have to wait for somebody to rescue them.”

“How is that remotely considered romantic, though?”

“Demons like great displays of strength and the best way to prove to a potential mate how strong you are is by taking them to your home and being able to defend it from people trying to come after the other demon that was kidnapped. Like I said before, the kidnappee is normally a demon and they can leave if they don’t like the guy, gal or non-gender specific demon that took ‘em. There’s really no harm or foul seen from a demon’s perspective. It’s when a human gets involved is when things get a bit messier. The best they can do in that situation is convince the demon to not finalize the marriage and hang tight for someone to eventually come to their rescue.”

“And by finalize you mean they…” MK purposely trailed off before making a vague hand motion over what he was heavily implying.

The Monkey King nodded.

He shoved his face into his hands in an attempt to hide his blushing face. “I can’t believe that’s what Red Son has been thinking was going on between us,” the Monkey King fanboy mumbled.

“Well, considering that you left your guard down around him a lot, and accepted his meals and treated him with genuine decency it was only a matter of time before he would hand you that courting gift. I bet that guy was getting frustrated from nothing happening,” Wukong theorized before laughing. “Oh, that’s so priceless.”

“I don’t think it’s funny,” MK said with a frown. “Now Red Son thinks I hate him.”

“Well, do you? Don’t pretend that I noticed you started to call him just Red during the progression of your story.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about when you started to fall for him.”

The mortal’s eyes widened as his throat dried up and his heart began to pound. “Wh-wh-what! No, I don’t. It was all just a big misunderstanding. Don’t you remember? The entire reason I kidnapped Red—Son in the first place was so the fighting would stop.”  
  


Wukong hummed and nodded but held an unconvinced stare. “Then how come you weren’t worried about not getting any replies from the Demon Bull Family? Mei told you they hadn’t sent a reply and after weeks of getting nothing, you didn’t react to it.” the Great Sage, Equal To Heaven wisely put.

MK opened and closed mouth, opend it again before closing it once more. He tried to find the words but couldn’t seem to find them.

“Think about it very carefully,” his teacher advised him, placing a hand on the human’s shoulder and looking straight into his eyes. “When did things between you and Red Son feel less like an obligation to being nice shift into something more?”

The Monkie Kid stilled himself as he followed the Monkey King’s instructions. He took a deep breath as he reflected over every moment, he spent with the demon prince. One memory stuck out to him.

🔥🍜

The skies above the city were darkened with rain clouds, but the weather didn’t perturb MK’s good mood in the slightest. He was having so much fun running over rooftops with Red. It was a great way to run their adrenaline out after fighting a powerful demon. It was also enjoyable to see how far he had grown in his physical prowess, especially comparing to how he started out. MK couldn’t believe how many times he used to trip while running. He was now pole-vaulting without so much as breaking a sweat. And competing with Red on which one of them could do the fanciest flips was also a real blast. MK was about to pull off an air cartwheel when his right foot got caught under a brick. The slip of his foot bushwhacked him so hard that he hadn’t even processed that he was falling until it was too late. The human barely had enough time to register a red blur catching him in flurry of flames before changing back into Red, holding the younger male in his arms while leaning against a pole.

“Careful there, Xiǎotiān. Can’t have you become a pancake now,” the fire demon said teasingly, though his eyes searched over MK. It became clear to the mortal that Red had been more frightened than he led on.

MK found himself chuckling nervously. It was partly out of embarrassment, but also something else. “Y-yeah, that would’ve been bad.”

For one reason that the past MK didn’t fully understand yet, the two males slowly started to incline their heads closer to each other. The Monkie Kid started to feel the urge to close his eyes when a cold droplet of water landed on his head. Whatever spell the two were in broke right as a downpour began to fall.

“We can use my Staff to climb down since the fire escape on the building looks too slippery to handle,” MK suggested as his and Red’s clothes became drenched. When he looked at the demon for a confirmation, he was a little surprised to see him look so sullen. The black-haired human was used to noticing Red’s moods before (enough to make a habit) and was able to recognize that his expression didn’t match the usual attitude he had when it rained. Oh, yes Red would sulk, more than ever when he got wet, but this looked and felt different. It was though he was disappointed and sad. His attitude unfortunately remained that way for the remainder of the evening. What was probably the worst thing about it was that the fire demon refused to smile before they went to sleep.

MK did everything he could so Red would smile again by the next morning. Cracking one dumb joke about his cooking skills was enough to make the demon smile fondly at him. The young hero decided he would dedicate some time every day to see that smile again for now on.

And always directed at him.

🔥🍜

“Oh,” MK breathed out as the realization finally kicked in. All the staring, the brief touches, the cute—bordering on flirty—banter, and the declarations of protection and supportive gestures. Everything made perfect sense. “I think I’m-”

“Uub, bub, bub-up,” Monkey King covered his protégé’s mouth with his hand. “Don’t be telling me this. Isn’t there a certain someone you should be sharing your innermost feelings with instead?” He gave the human a knowing look.

The mortal brightened. “Yeah, yeah! I need to go tell Red! I should probably be heading back anyway since I’ve been gone for,” he paused to check his phone for the time. Once MK read his digital clock his eyes grew to the size of saucers used in grand banquets. “Three hours!?! How could’ve been that long!”

“It was a pretty long story,” Sun Wukong said, picking some earwax out of his left ear.

“Oh, I have no idea if he’s still even there,” the black-haired teen moaned. “He probably hates me for being gone for so long.”

“Yeah, most likely,” the Monkey King said before gave the human a hard look. “I got it!”

MK looked at his mentor. “Got what?”

“This,” the grinning primate said after pulling out a small beetle from his pupil’s hair. “I just noticed this little guy,” he said before he put the insect into his mouth to munch on it.

The Monkey Mech gamer frowned. That was not what he was expecting. “Don’t you have any suggestions on what I should do to apologize to Red?”

“I figured you should just do the direct approach and go back home and apologize,” the Sage suggested before his eyes shifted to something a bit more anxious. “Or you could do what I’m doing and stay hidden in a tropical paradise for centuries and hope she doesn’t go looking for you.”

“There’s no way I’m going to—wait, who’s she?”

The Stone Monkey sputtered on a peach chip before clearing his throat. “Nothing! No one. Nobody. Anyway, if you’re really set on apologizing to Red Son, I could suggest giving him something to soften his anger.”

“Like a gift?”

“Yeah, he gave you that bracelet, didn’t he? Or at least he tried to,” Sun said, purposely eyeing MK’s bare wrists.

He looked at his arms as an idea started to come into being. “Yeah. I actually have an idea.” He stared at his teacher, hopefully. “You wouldn’t happen to have any untold riches hidden away that you aren’t too attached to?”

Thankfully Monkey King seemed to be picking up MK’s hints and replied with a grin and said, “I just might have what you’re looking for.”

The human grinned in response before the two got to work.

🔥🍜

It was barely sundown by the time MK reached the noodle shop. Since it was Sunday the store was closed, and the lights were dark. He started to worry when he noticed none of the lights in the loft were turned on.

_Maybe Red went out for a walk?_ the Monkie Kid thought hopefully… Or, maybe Red was fed up with MK at long last and decided to return to his parents, their relationship completely damaged beyond repair.

MK paused to take a deep breath in order to calm himself down. It wasn’t too late. There was still time to make things right again. He swallowed down his fears before entering through the back door with a key Pigsy had given him when he first moved into the loft. The young man then climbed up the stairs with a sense of purpose despite his feet feeling more like lead with each step he took. After what felt like a half hour (when it was actually closer to three minutes) of walking MK reached the door to his apartment, a little relived and nervous to see it closed, knowing it could mean two different things. Either Red stayed and is waiting for him… or he left and shut the door behind him after leaving the place for good. With what little courage the young man had left he inhaled deeply before he rattled the back of his hand against the wood.

Once an eternity of waiting passed, MK was overjoyed to hear the familiar sound of the doorknob being jostled before seeing it turn.

His smile then morphed into a frown after seeing the fire demon. His hair was disheveled with no hair tie to be found, so it was all loose and wild looking. Red’s jacket was gone but he still had on his sleeveless black tank top and his usual purple pants. His eyes were red, but it took MK a few seconds to see they were that from a far more different emotion than anger. Detached and resigned. 

A heavy wave of guilt was ready to drown MK for what he did to this demon male.

The fire demon had his eyes closed as he opened the door, with a sigh he started, “I don’t want to talk Mei, so just g—oh, it’s you.” Red cut himself off right after he opened his eyes and saw MK standing before him. The successor to Sun Wukong was quick to note the change in Red’s tone.

“H-hey,” MK stuttered, giving his—does he still considered Red his friend? Yeah, his—friend a slight wave.

Red regarded him with a diffident look of his own and said, “Hey.”

“Is it alright if I come in?”

“Xiǎotiān, this is your home.” the fire demon reminded him pointblank.

MK wanted to slap himself. “Oh, right.” The wielder of Monkey King’s Staff shuffled as he entered his own flat and closed the door behind him. “Can we sit over on the bed? I have some things I need to talk to you about.”

Red was taken aback by the question momentarily before wordlessly nodding. Once they two boys sat down MK grabbed a pillow and held in his lap for comfort. Ever since he left Flower-Fruit Mountain the things he came up with to say to Red weighed deeply in his mind, along with a small object in his coat pocket. 

“To be honest that I’m a little shocked that you’re still here,” MK admitted. Much to his shock the demon didn’t react wildly as he anticipated. Instead, Red looked more defeated.

“You said you were going to come back,” the demon replied. “Why would you think I wouldn’t stay? Despite how frightened you were sounding earlier you made it seem like you didn’t want me to go.”

MK bit his lip before he allowed himself to spill out his anxieties. “It’s… well, I thought you’d be mad after I ran away so abruptly. Like you’d leave and go back to your parents.”

“It did cross my mind while you were away,” the fire demon admitted. “But you always kept your promises no matter what, so I willed myself to stay even if my negative thoughts tried to convince me otherwise.”

“You thought I was Mei earlier?” the black-haired mortal asked in an attempt to keep the conversation from sounding too depressing.

“I’ve been speaking with her on her cell,” the redhead disclosed. “She said she would try to call you later.”

MK blushed after he looked at his phone and noticed all the notifications that showed all the texts and calls, he missed. “I was with Monkey King. I came to him to ask for some advice. It was about what happened between us.”

“Mei told me some things as well,” Red said. “The only reason you kidnapped me was because you wanted to make either me, my parents or both to stop attacking the city.”

Red’s words burned MK all the way to his soul. “I—” he paused before nodding in reluctance. “Yes, yes, she’s right. I had no idea that kidnapping someone meant something completely different in demon culture.”

“I am such a fool,” the demon said with a look of despair. He snarled while a hand against his forehead. “I can’t believe I mistook your words as flirting. All this time I thought you were just being shy and that was why you never touched me.”

“I know,” MK said in complete and total understanding. “I thought you were being so willing and helpful because of some weird demon ritual and later thought you wanted to change.”

“I **did** want to change, for you.” Red added the last two words in desperation.

Another feeling of guilt hit him as he thought over his next words and looked at Red. “Look, I’m sorry for misunderstanding what you were doing and I’m also sorry for giving you the wrong idea.” _At first._

MK frowned after seeing the demon wince at what he was saying and was tempted to just stop and hug him—but he couldn’t! He had to let Red know what he needed to say.

“I want to make it up to you,” the human said while staring at Red.

“That’s why I’m allowing you the choice to leave if you want.”

The Monkie Kid’s offer hanged above the two males for what felt like hours, but it instead lasted for a couple of seconds. To his alarm Red held the most gutted expression he’d ever seen before tears started to fall from his eyes.

“Why?” his tone was so broken as he cried. “How dare you cut open my heart and stab it like this!”

“What?” MK gaped. He wasn’t expecting this reaction from the demon prince.

“Do you really hate me this much?” Red said, in between sobs.

“NO!” The hero floundered before he just decided to wrap his arms around the upset demon, not caring if his hands touched the uncontrollable fire that was Red’s hair. “B-but, I don’t want you to leave!” he shouted to Red while he gently rubbed his hand against the demon’s back in an effort to comfort him.

Silence filled the room, save for the rapid breathing Red released.

“Then why tell me that I should leave? Why?” the demon prince asked through a hoarse voice.

“Because that’s the right thing to do,” MK said, trying very hard to explain himself, hoping not to hurt the demon again. “Humans, we don’t like being forced into a relationship with someone else. We like being independent and free to make our own choices.”

Red seemed to be listening to what MK was waying, but he retained a conflicted mien. “What if what they want goes against what you want?”

“Then you either try to figure out a way to meet each other halfway or you’ve got to respect their decision and leave them alone,” the Monkie Kid answered, remembering the lessons his parents, Pigsy, Tang and Sandy taught him. “There’s this old saying, if you love something, you gotta set it free. That the person you love should be allowed to decide what they want to do because that’s what love is. At least that’s what I think it means. I’m not saying you should leave because I want you **gone** , I’m saying it because I’m willing to put your needs before mine and let **you** be happy. I would do anything to make you happy because I love-” MK paused, suddenly getting cold feet.

“Love? Love what….” The confused look on Red slowly turned into one of understanding before he clasped both of the mortal’s hands. He made sure to stare deeply into MK’s eyes and asked, “Xiǎotiān, do you love me?”

MK felt the word around him fade as he considered everything up to that moment in time. If Red were to ask him that question nine months ago the human would have balked from hearing it. The idea of falling for someone so quickly never set right for MK, that part had to do with his demisexuality. And he was honestly too scared at the time to really think about the idea of being with Red when they first met, but over time he did start to see a certain physical appeal about the demon. In his head he would admit that the son of the Demon Bull King was handsome and leave it at that. It was only when Red lived with MK after the whole kidnapping thing that his feelings became less about surface level and more— **more.** Yes, he still found Red Son attractive but getting to know him more as a person instead of a far-off fantasy built from scant daydreams only made the Monkie Kid become fully attached to him. The way Red laughed, to how much pride he took in his cooking skills, his insistence on making sure MK cared about his health, going out of his way to protect the human’s friends and loved ones, slowing becoming friends with them in the process…

MK wasn’t really sure when he fell, but all that mattered to him was that he did.

The Monkie Kid nonverbally asked for one of his hands to be freed from Red’s grasp. Once the hand was loose MK pressed it against the fire demon’s face. Without any further words the human slowly moved his head forward with his eyelids partly closed. Red didn’t need any prompting for him to meet MK halfway for their lips to touch. There was no feeling of any fireworks exploding but instead he felt a great warmth spread across his body. He wasn’t sure if it was him or Red whose breath hitched but the gasp made him feel very excited and tempt him to bring his body closer to the demon prince’s.

_Not yet,_ his mind reminded him as did the small object now pressing against his robs after Red started wrapping his arms around his waist.

“R-Red,” MK said against the redhead’s mouth. With great reluctance he gently pushed the demon away to stare at him despite every part of his body protesting him not to. “I love you. I love you a lot and I want you to know that.”

The demon let out a whine. “I get it. I love you, too. Your actions spoke louder than words, Xiǎotiān. Can we please just continue...?”

He almost wanted to laugh at how needy Red was behaving but had to keep his head on straight and push the affectionate demon back before he got too close. “Red, I have something I want to give you.”

The older male, finally getting that the other wasn’t interested in making out just yet, sighed dramatically in that special way to show he wasn’t being too serious. “Alright. What is it, Xiǎotiān?”

MK smiled at Red while pulling out a small rectangular wooden box from his jacket. It was a practically an antique made from very old wood with monkeys carved on the side, but that wasn’t important. What mattered to the head-band wearing human was what was inside the box. He opened the lid, its hinges squeaking from use, to reveal the project he had worked on with Monkey King’s help.

Inside the box was a cuff silver bracelet with a bright green jade stone in the center. Aside from the colors it matched the gift Red crafted for him in exact detail.

Hearing the demon gasp in surprise had been worth it.

“Before I left Flower-Fruit Mountain I asked Monkey King if he could let me make a bracelet to match the one you made me—where is it—oh, there it is,” MK said, getting off topic momentarily to find the box with Red’s gift and discovered it on his windowsill. The young man took the golden bracelet from inside and held it in one hand while the other still carried his present.

“I’m positive that I’m not ready for us to be married, at least by human traditions, but I do know that I want to stay together with you.” he said further, looking at a flummoxed Red. The student of Sun Wukong smiled at seeing the demon’s reaction. “The reason I made this bracelet is so we can make this more like a promise of marriage someday.” He blushed before continuing, “I really want us to try this relationship-thing with you and just see where it g—” The mortal was interrupted again but this time it wasn’t by his own.

Red Son was kissing him firmly on the mouth. Somehow it was even more enthusiastic than the previous one with MK on the verge of swooning from euphoria. The two bracelets clattering to the floor after he dropped them. He totally let out a gasp when the fire demon timidly glided his tongue over the human’s mouth. Mutely he gave him his permission and soon their tongues slowly danced together. Somehow while this was all happening Red was able to remove MK’s jacket, freeing him of the clothing that was starting to feel a bit stifling on his overheated body. Eventually the two boys were forced to disconnect themselves from each other in order to breathe. The only thing that connected them still was a thin line of saliva.

“R-Red?” a startled, but not frightened, MK sputtered right before the demon prince was coaxing him to lie down. As soon as the Monkie Kid’s back hit the mattress Red landed with a small thump himself before craning his head close to the younger male’s neck. 

“Can I ask why you chose a green gem for my bracelet,” the demon asked right as his lips touched MK’s throat.

“I-ah~Gah, I picked jade because it reminded me of your eyes,” the nineteen-year-old said, trying very hard to prevent his voice from squeaking in reaction to the little nips Red was making against his skin.

“Hmmm,” the prince hummed before he glanced up at the flustered MK. While brandishing a smirk Red pulled himself up. He adjusted his body until his arms and legs were enclosed over the Noodle Boy’s.

“So, you noticed that my eyes change colors,” he noted, sounding a bit impressed.

MK nodded. “Yeah, like how your eyes are normally dark looking, but they turn red when you’re mad, and they turn green when you seem to be happy, like you are right now?”

Red chuckled in amusement at MK’s words until he shook his head once. “That’s not the only reason why my eyes turn green. Do you want to know what else?”

When the successor to Monkey King nodded Red lowered his head until his lips were less than a centimeter to the other’s right ear. “They turn green when I’m aroused.”

Once MK processed the demon’s words his body turned ten degrees warmer. “Oh~ So, you mean you want to…?”

“I’ve been waiting for three months for us to be like this,” Red bared open, displaying a very stymied look. It then turned softer after he saw the Monkie Kid’s stunned reaction. “But I will only take things further if you wish to. I don’t want to force you to do something you’re not comfortable with, Xiǎotiān. So, please tell me right now what you want. If you wish for me to stop, I will.”

MK blinked as he mulled over what the former Red Sage King was indicating. He thought over everything that has happened to them by this point and figured out what his answer was going to be. The human pressed his mouth against Red’s before giving his verbal reply.

Red didn’t ask him anymore questions after that.

🔥🍜

Hours later, both males were resting under the thin sheets of the bed. They were sweaty, tired, dazed and buzzed from the natural high they gained from the endorphins stemmed from their… previous activities. 

“How are you feeling?” MK heard Red ask while the former was vacantly staring at the ceiling.

“A little sore, but I guess most people would be after their first time?” he asked before he turned his head to look over at Red who was busy gazing at him in wonderment.

“Red?” The budding artist would’ve said more if it weren’t for the fire demon pressing his lips against him. “What’s that about?” he blissfully asked right after Red finished kissing him.

“I’m just… so honored to have given you this experience for the first time as you did for me,” the son of DBK said, gazing at him as though he was looking at a sacred treasure. Right after that he planted his lips on the mortal’s face, kissing every square inch he could find.

“Stop,” MK feebly ordered, though he did nothing to physically push the fire demon from him.

“Make me,” Red teased with a fanged grin.

The Monkie Kid playfully rolled his eyes and made no attempts to shove his newfound lover away. After letting out a content sigh he said, “I’m really glad I decided to bring you here.”

“Me too, love.” Wukong’s student smiled when he felt a kiss above his right brow. “Still,” Red pondered. “I can’t help but wonder if we’d still be in this position if I had fallen through with my plan.”

“What plan?”

When MK readjusted his head’s resting position, so he had a better time seeing Red’s face, the demon had a rather embarrassed looking expression.

“Well, the reason behind my daily rematches against you was actually an attempt at kidnapping you. You see, my plan was that after I defeated you, I had every intention of taking you back to my personal lair in the Fiery Mountains and make you **my** husband.”

MK was no longer feeling tired, but not for the reason he had originally expected. “Wait, so, the reason behind those attacks every day was to kidnap me? You wanted to marry me all the way back then?” He sighed before staring at the wall. “I guess that explains perfectly why you were totally cool with me taking you over to my place.”

Red stroke the other’s cheek while his own face turned a bright shade of pink. “I thought you were aware of my intentions and had decided to beat me to it.”

The Staff wielder turned to look at his boyfriend again, which ended the latter’s ministrations on the former. “I’ll be honest here and admit after hearing that, I’m not really sure what to think—kinda feeling a little mixed—but I do love that you’re being truthful, and you do now know why kidnapping is wrong.”

Red cocked an eyebrow. “Coming from the person who did the kidnapping in the first place?”

“Just because I did it doesn’t mean I liked it,” the younger male said, his lips forming a pout that Red soon commented on being adorable. MK opened his mouth to protest how he wasn’t adorable only to get pleasantly interrupted by a kiss from the fire demon.

“I could get used to this,” the demon said dreamily, MK nodded in return. “Just a fair bit of warning, though. Even though you don’t see us as married other demons will guess we are after tonight.”

The headband-wearing mortal frowned after hearing that little bit of information. “How are they going to find out anyway? We’re not going to send a message to the demon community.”

“No, but they will…” Red hesitated to answer before MK prompted him to continue. “They will be able to figure it out after smelling our scents. Demons have heightened senses that allow them to pick up if two people’s scents are mixed with each other.”

MK blanched in reaction once he listened to the prince’s explanation. “Oh, that’s great.”

“It’s something that would be revealed eventually, Xiǎotiān,” Red judiciously said. “We’ll just have to deal with it together.”

“Well, that last part doesn’t sound so bad,” MK said, his good mood from earlier returning. Red mirrored his happy expression before brushing his lips until they were kissing again. They continued to express their love in a physical manner for most of the night before finally falling asleep in each other’s embrace.

🔥🍜

The next morning has our two dorks in love sharing a nice little moment as they wake up only to get rudely interrupted by Pigsy’s knocking.

“I think you’re right about us moving into our own place,” a drowsy MK said to a equally sleepy looking Red.

“Glad you **finally** understand what I meant by that.” The two climbed out of their bed and quickly got themselves cleaned up before heading downstairs in fresh new clothes (and wearing semi-matching betrothal bracelets). As soon as MK saw the bottom of the first floor, he soon realized that he couldn’t see the first floor with each square section covered in many different boxes.

“What’s all this?” the Monkie Kid wondered aloud as he and Red stared at the unusual sight, dumbfounded.

“That’s what I would like to know,” Pigsy snapped indignantly. “I’m supposed to be sellin’ noodles, not running a post office. All of these boxes have your names on them,” he said pointing towards MK and Red.

“They do?” both males said in unison.

“Including a couple that specifically say they’re from the Heavenly Kingdom,” came Tang’s voice behind a large stack of boxes right near the pig-man.

Before either MK or Red could comment someone cleared their throat. All the four people inside the room turned their heads to where the source of the sound came from.

“Hi, there.” At the end of the bar sat the legendary Great Sage, Equal To Heaven slurping a bowl full of noodles and vegetables.

“Monkey King?”—“Sun Wukong!” MK and Red said at the same time.

“What are you doing here?” That time it was the human who asked.

“Well, I came here to say congrats to the newlyweds,” he said with a wink towards MK and Red.

“What newlyweds?” Pigsy demanded, after getting out of his stupor of seeing the powerful monkey demon. Mr. Tang moved from behind the boxes that concealed his body while trying his best not to trip on any of the smaller ones.

“I think he means them,” Tang answered while pointing at the human-demon couple.

“WHAT?”

Sun ignored the pig’s indignant yell, putting his attention on MK and Red.

“So, this question is directed towards Red Bo-” “Son,” the fire demon interrupted him.

“Son,” Wukong corrected with an eye-roll. “I wanted to ask if I should start referring myself as your uncle and/or father-in-law?”

Red placed a hand on his hip. “Excuse me?

“Father-in-law?” MK echoed in confusion.

“Well, it’s not official yet, but after talking it out with my lawyer I am in the process of legally adopting you. Oh, and I wanted to explain why all these boxes are here.”

As MK was too busy with having an aneurysm to respond, Red stepped in an asked, “Why are they here?”

  
  
“That’s what I’m asking, too!” Pigsy shouted, trying to put himself back in the conversation only to get dragged away by an apologetic Tang.

“Well, somehow, every deity, demon and spirit from here to the tips of Buddha’s fingertips found out that not only do I have an adopted son (“SON?!” MK squealed at the top of his lungs out of pure joy) but they found out that he’s technically married.”

“I’M SUN WUKONG’S—Wait,” MK ceased his elated screaming to both look at his new dad and husband(?). “Since when did Red and I get married?” Unless the Monkey King was referring to… last night. The human started to blush at the implications.

“By the ancient rules you two are basically wedded since you are cohabiting after the whole kidnapping thing,” the Monkey King explained casually. “Honestly, I’m a bit surprised that the gods back in Jade’s place are acknowledging it as a legit union since normally kidnappings are exclusively a demon custom.” Then he smirked. “Though I guess it might have something to do with that outburst you had three months ago, and you terrified everybody enough that they probably believe another Havoc in Heaven will repeat if they think they ticked you off in any way.”

“So, that’s why Red and I have so many gifts?” MK concluded, motioning to the tall piles of boxes in the shop.

“Actually, on my way here I noticed that there’s a large caravan of delivery trucks heading straight for this place,” the Stone Monkey said right as a delivery man carrying three large boxes in a stack knocked at the door. Right after him were at least another half dozen men in identical uniforms carrying similar packages.

MK’s jaw dropped all the way to the floor as he saw the growing number of boxes arriving at the shop.

“Just a reminder, the last time I checked, there are almost a thousand gods, if you include the ones found in local family shrines,” Tripitaka’s First Disciple said as a warning.

“Well, at least this means we don’t have to worry about shopping for our new apartment,” Red said with a crooked smile towards his groom. “Oh, by the way, Xiǎotiān and I are moving out of your dump of a loft, Pigsy. Nothing personal, I just don’t like you as a landlord.”

Tang had to hold onto the demon pig even harder to prevent him to lunging at the Demon Bull Prince. “I am a great landlord!”

As Red and Pigsy get into an argument Sun approached his discombobulated pupil.

“Say, uh, kid, I hope you don’t mind, but I peaked in a couple of the boxes and noticed you were gifted two of the exact same waffle irons. You wouldn’t mind if I took one of them off your hands, do you?”

_This is literally my new life,_ MK thought as he glanced at the ever-expanding pile of wedding presents and then watched as his ‘spouse’ was on the verge of tackling his boss. Through the door MK could see Mei and Sandy trying to get in while asking what the heck was going on. As the chaos grew MK felt a warm hand on his shoulder and noticed the Monkey King smiling at him as if he completely understood the situation his student was experiencing.

Yep, this was indeed the nineteen-year-old’s new way of living. All thanks to accidently getting engaged to his enemy. And yet…

MK smiled at his teacher, giving him a nod in permitting him to take whatever appliance he wanted. He then removed the Great Sage’s arm off him and walked over to his still fuming… husband (yeah, that was going to take a while to get used to). He touched Red’s hand and almost instantly the fire demon ceased his shouting to look at him with a hesitant expression. With a much more confident look MK pressed his lips on the side of the demon’s temple and watched in amusement at seeing him turn into his namesake while melting. As Mei and Sandy tumbled their way inside the store their young friend went over to them to explain just want was going on as the rest of Megapolis woke up to start the new day.

Yes, the Monkie Kid was going to be living a whole new life now. And yet… MK wouldn’t have any other way. 

**The End…**

**Or is it?**

Inside the palace the Demon Bull Family was currently lodging in after their old lair got destroyed a fuming Princess Iron Fan paced inside the ornate throne room.

“I can hardly believe that little human actually wanted to copulate with our son,” she lamented, tapping her giant fan forcefully against the ground with each step she took.

“Well, you did always say a demon couple as attractive as us could breed the best-looking demon,” the Demon Bull King said with a hint of pride.

That didn’t soothe his wife’s frustrations, though. “Appearances aren’t the only thing that matter to humans, apparently. Many of them want partners that resonate with them on a personal level. Personality, compatibility and sharing similar interests and goals are things that seem more important than looks to them.”

The Demon Bull King snorted, causing his nose ring to jingle. “I never thought humans were capable of complex thinking.”

“That little noodle boy should’ve kicked our son to the curb, forcing him to crawl back to us in tears, admitting he was wrong to harbor that stupid attraction.” The mortal was supposed to be repulsed at the notion on principle. That was how it always went in the old days. Well, except for that White Snake—but no one in the demon community considered her one of their own after she pretended to be a human for so long.

“Perhaps we should’ve responded to all those letters the Dragon King of the Western Sea’s descendant kept sending to us,” the purple bull said, motioning to the large pile of opened letters lying in a corner.

“If she had known she might have told that Little Thief our intentions and make him think this was all a trick,” he said further.

“Our son would hate us if we lied to them,” the demoness in red said in disagreement. “We saw this as a lesson he needed to learn about how giving your heart to a fickle human is dangerous to us demons. He surely would’ve seen the light after getting rejected.”

“Which didn’t happen,” Red Son’s father said with an undignified scowl.

Princess Iron Fan growled. “This day can’t possibly get more disappointing than it already has.”

As if the Buddha himself was listening in the two main doors of the throne room opened. Entering the threshold was a Bull Clone that the consort of the Demon Bull King recognized. It was the one with the designation of Bob. She was able to identify him thanks to his upside-down right horn. In his hands was a rolled-up scroll.

“What is it?” the demoness asked impatiently.

After uttering a grunt, the low-leveled drone kowtowed towards the royal couple, holding up the scroll for them to take. Without so much as a thank you Princess Iron Fan took the letter.

“It’s not from the Dragon Girl, is it?” the bull demon demanded to know.

“No,” his wife shook her head. “This isn’t written in that text font humans are fond of using. This is actual calligraphy.” She could barely recall the last time someone bothered to write a message, using ink no less. It was then Iron Fan smelled the faint hint of peaches that she knew who sent it. Both she and her husband glowered while they read the letter together.

_Dear Former Sworn Brother,_

_It appears that both of our sons have decided to make it official._

_Since we’re all now going to be a big happy family it would be an honor to have you and your ‘ray of sunshine’ of a wife come over to Flower-Fruit Mountain sometime for a nice dinner between the in-laws. You are welcome to bring any appetizer you like if there is no meat. Humans included._

_Your Best Bud In the Whole Wide World,_

_Wukong._

Right next to his name was a caricature of a smaller Monkey King winking while sporting that idiotic smile the demon couple knew all too well.

Iron Fan was ready to shred the offensive paper with her wind when she spotted a short sentence that was written within a large gap of the rest of the words.

_P.S. Hey, Iron Fan, any chance you could invite that cute sister of yours to dinner? ;)_

The holder of the Banana Leaf Fan’s right eye started twitching before she let out a howl of pure rage along with her husband.

🔥🍜

In the far distant Flower-Fruit Mountain, the troop led by Sun Wukong were able to hear loud roars.

“Wow, that’s some pure angrish there,” the Handsome Monkey King noted to his subjects. “Well, I guess this means my former brother and his wife got my message.”

When the Immortal noticed the monkeys exchange worried expressions, he did his best to soothe their worries.

“Don’t worry, little ones, that’s just my future son-in-law’s parents’ way of saying they are more than happy to accept my offer to dine.” The grin he sported soon turned thoughtful. “We better get ready for our guests to arrive since I also invited MK and Red before I left the noodle shop. That means we’ll need to hide all the knives, weapons and should only serve cups with lids when everybody shows up.”

Now this is…

**The End**

* * *

**Q-A:** This was a fun story to write. I’m glad I was able to get this uploaded while it was still the Lunar New Year in my part of the world. I hope everyone had/is having a safe celebration and here’s hoping the Year of the Ox goes better than the Year of the Rat. Thank you to everyone who commented and gave kudos.

References: 

As for the whole thing with PIF and her sister. She doesn’t have one in canon. It’s just a little in-joke I’m doing for myself because I’m planning to write another Monkie Kid fanfic (set in a different AU than this one) that’ll properly introduce a new oc I made up who is PIF’s twin half-sister. Technically she’s inspired by an old story of a princess Wukong kidnapped in an older version of his tale that was made before Pigsy/Zhu Bajie was created and put into Journey To The West. I hope you’ll all like it when it comes out. It will be a Spicynoodle story of course, it’s the first one I ever came up with too, in fact. :)

~Please give comments, kudos, maybe make a bookmark and subscribe. I’ll answer any questions to the best of my abilities. :D And be sure to…

Keep on Writin’ and Rockin’

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 1 References: 
> 
> According to WordHippo.com, “Háo bù” roughly translates to “None at all”. I tried to look up the word "none" on my translation app on my phone but it only gives me Chinese characters. I apologize to any Chinese readers if they found it in accurate. I am a poor ignorant white lady living in the most stereotypical state in the United States, Texas. Nope, I’m not kidding.


End file.
